The Prophecy of Eight
by Ravenwood240
Summary: Twelve years ago, Harry Potter destroyed Voldemort after a decade of death and war. Now, a new Dark Lord rises and eight children must lead the fight against a Wizard who walks in both worlds easily. PostVoldemort Story, massively AU.
1. Early Beginnings

_For those of you that have been reading Prophecy, I apologize for this. When I first started writing that story, I had some definite things I wanted to do. I started posting it on another site though, and being new to fanfiction, I allowed a Beta to convince me that the story would not be as well received the way I wanted to do it, and let her convince me to change it to a "better" way._

_Now, half of the story is going in ways I didn't want to go, and the whole thing is not pleasing to me. With three years of stories under my belt, including several that have been far better received, because I wrote them the way I wanted to, I am increasing dissatisfied with Prophecy._

_Here is Prophecy, the way I wanted to do it, just after GOF came out, and we didn't have any idea when OotP was coming out. I have changed it slightly, to include some elements of later stories. You should recognize the bits from OotP and HBP._

_**The Prophecy of Eight**_

_**Chapter One**_

_**Early Beginnings**_

_**OoOoOoO Godric's Hollow, March 25th, 2005. OoOoOoO**_

Harry Potter paced back and forth in the living room of his home, waiting and worrying. Ron Weasley and an obviously pregnant Hermione Granger-Weasley watched him with smiles. He looked up and frowned at their smiles. "What are you smiling at?" he asked irritably.

Ron grinned. "Mate, you've faced Death Eaters, Inferi and Voldemort himself and I've never seen you this nervous."

Harry shrugged and went back to his pacing. "Those were easy. They just wanted to kill me, unless I killed them first. This is far more important."

Hermione and Ron exchanged amused glances as Harry resumed his pacing. All three of them jerked as a cry came from the other room, and Harry's mouth went dry. That had not been Ginny. They watched the door to the bedroom and Molly Weasley came out a few minutes later, looking tired and worn, but very happy.

"Would you like to go in and see Ginny, Harry?" she said and had barely gotten the words out when Harry was past her and entering the room.

Harry stopped just inside the door and looked at the bed. Ginny Potter was propped up in the bed, looking tired and holding a small bundle. She looked up at Harry and smiled. "Come and meet your daughter."

Harry walked over to the bed on legs that felt numb. "Daughter?" he said numbly. He sat on the edge of the bed and Ginny held out their first born child. Harry took the tiny bundle and looked at his daughter for the first time.

She had the red hair of her Weasley mother, currently matched by her face, although Harry knew that would soon fade, after having seen nearly a dozen babies from the rather fertile Weasley family in the last year and a half. He rather hoped that she hadn't gotten his messy hair, or he'd never hear the end of it from Ginny.

She screwed up her face and opened her eyes, and Harry saw his mother's eyes looking at the world in a unfocused attempt to look at this new world. "Hello little one," he said softly.

Ginny smiled at the look of wonder and pleasure on Harry's face as he met their child. She looked at him and a shadow crossed her face. "Do you still want to name her after Miss Monroe?"

Harry looked at Ginny seriously. "We owe Tiffany Monroe our lives, and Hermione's life. She saved all of us, and died doing it, but because she wasn't a British Wizard, she wasn't recognized among the ones who fought. We are the only ones that remember her, and that is wrong."

Ginny nodded, remembering the blonde woman, one of the foreign Wizards or Witches that had found the second part of the Voldemort War serious enough to come to England from other countries and help out.

She had proven her skills and courage a dozen times before taking Ron's place in the Horcrux hunting team when he was recovering from injuries. She had been with Harry, Ginny and Hermione when they found the locket R.A.B. had taken. The protections around it had been set to kill Voldemort if he found it, as the thief had figured that he would be the only one looking for it.

The four of them had entered the small hidden room in the Black Manor, and the door had disappeared. A second later, Anti-EveryBloodyThing wards (As Ron called them,) had appeared and the walls had started moving towards each other.

Harry had tried to grab the locket and been stopped by a wall of magic. A voice had come from the air. "If this locket you would have, the price you must pay. When you take up this locket, I will take your life. If one pays the price, all the rest shall live."

The four of them had looked at each other and the walls closing in. Harry had turned back to the locket, reaching for it only to be caught in Hermione's full body bind. "We can't let you do that, Harry," she said desperately. "It would do us no good to destroy the Horcruxes if we don't have you to kill Voldemort after they are gone."

Before she could say anything else, she was stunned. Harry rolled his eyes to look around and saw Ginny lying on the floor as well. Tiffany Monroe was putting her wand away. She looked at Harry. "You need them, one for friendship and one for love. I am expendable here."

Harry could do nothing but watch as she took the locket from the small pedestal. Despair and anger grew in him as he was once again forced to watch someone die while he could do nothing. There was a flash of green light, a shade of green Harry knew well and when his sight cleared, the walls had stopped and there were three bodies lying on the floor.

Two of them would recover from the stunners they had been hit with, but the young blonde woman was gone.

Harry and Ginny looked at each other as they came out of the memories. Ginny Potter looked at her daughter, and smiled as she took her from her father to give their child her first meal.

Harry looked at them both and knew that he had never seen a more beautiful sight. "Hello, Tiffany," he said softly. "I will make your life better than mine was."

_**OoOoOoO The Burrow, April 30th 2005. OoOoOoO**_

Ron was doing something he'd never done before, not in fourteen years of knowing Harry Potter. He was losing a chess game to Harry. The fact that he was paying more attention to the stairs than the game might have had something to do with that, but Harry was taking full advantage of it.

Ginny came over, carrying a plate of sandwiches. "Anybody want one?" she asked brightly. Harry and Ginny shared a smile as Ron refused food for the first time since he was old enough to eat.

"Ron," Harry said, waving a hand in front of Ron's face.

Ron shook his head and looked at Harry. "What?"

"Checkmate."

That caught Ron's attention for a second, long enough to see that Harry was right. "Good game, mate," Ron said absently, as he returned his attention to the stairs.

Fred and George were watching the scene with large smiles, and Harry just knew they were saving this up for later, when winding Ron up would be easier and he would remember it. Ginny and Harry looked up as a baby's cry came from the living room. Ginny sighed. "I'll get her this time. That's a hunger cry."

Harry smiled as he watched his wife go into the living room to take Tiffany from Katie and Angelina, who had come with the twins.

Ron paled as another baby's cry came from upstairs. He jumped up and promptly fell over his chair. That was too much for the twins, who burst out laughing.

"Trouble walking?" asked Fred, grinning.

"Not Ron, he would never be nervous about something like this," said Harry innocently, smirking at Ron. Harry laughed as Ron shot him a dirty look. Payback was wonderful, Harry decided. Watching Ron waiting for the birth of his first born child was nearly as much fun as watching the twins trying to get someone to try their latest prank.

Molly came down the stairs and smiled at everyone. "Go on upstairs, Ron, Hermione and your daughter are waiting for you."

Ron grinned foolishly from the floor and finally managed to get up. "I have a daughter," he said, blinking at everyone. "I have a daughter!" He disappeared up the stairs.

Katie and Angelina watched the twins snicker for a minute and then looked at each other. "It seems, Mrs. Weasley, that the boys have forgotten a few things, like what they were doing while Harry and Sirius were being born."

Katie nodded thoughtfully. "I believe you're right, Mrs. Weasley, and that's without saying anything about Lily and Molly's birth two days later."

Molly, Harry and Ginny were watching the twins with smiles. The twins were studiously examining the ceiling as their ears burned. Fred looked at Katie. "Love, we talked about that."

Katie smirked. "Yes, we did, and I made no promises."

The twins looked at each other. "Fred,"

"George,"

"We'd better talk to them again." With that, the twins pounced on their wives, kissing them dramatically.

Harry and Ginny watched with amusement as Molly lit into the twins about their behaviour in public, especially in front of their mother.

Ron came down the stairs slowly, holding a small bundle as if if it was made of spun glass and the least little thing would shatter it. "I'd like to introduce you all to Emmeline Erin Weasley."

_**OoOoOoO Hogwarts Infirmary, April 30th, 2005.OoOoOoO**_

Hagrid paced back and forth as he waited for Madame Pomfrey. He jumped as the Infirmary door opened and Professor Dumbledore walked in. The Headmaster of Hogwarts smiled at the man that had been his most faithful follower for more than seventy years. "No word yet, Hagrid?"

Hagrid shook his head. "No Sir, Professor Dumbledore." He frowned at the door. "I still don't understand why I canna be in there. I've assisted at dozens of births, including Norbert."

Professor Dumbledore had long known about Norbert, but Hagrid didn't know that. "Norbert? I don't recall you having a creature by that name."

Hagrid looked at the ceiling. "Ah, well, you see, Sir, it's like this."

Hagrid was interrupted by a loud squalling from the other room, and he forgot about Norbert.

The two men waited, and soon Madame Pomfrey came out, straining to carry a very large baby. Olympe Maxine-Hagrid followed her, pale but smiling at her husband. "Hagrid, we have a son."

Hagrid blinked at the baby several times, and he did the last thing any of would have expected.

Hagrid, Survivor and Hero of the Voldemort War, raiser of three headed dogs, Dragons and other thing less friendly, fainted.

_**OoOoOoO Dr. Anderson's Office, Surrey, May 1st, 2005 OoOoOoO**_

"Very good, Rochelle. One more push should do it." Mr. Brooks stood next to his wife of ten years and held her hand as she strained again. "That's done it." Dr. Anderson looked up with a smile. "Congratulations. You have a boy," he said over the baby's first cries.

Louis Brooks stared as the doctor and his nurse took the small squalling bundle away to the side of the room and did arcane medical things to his son. He looked at his wife who was watching just as avidly, despite her exhaustion.

They had been trying to have a child for ten years, and finally, they had resorted to fertility drugs. That decision had led to this day, and they couldn't express their joy. The Doctor examined Mrs. Brooks and suddenly tensed. "Nurse, call the Hospital and get that ambulance over here. She's started to haemorrhage."

Mr. Brooks was left holding their child as his wife, who had lapsed into unconsciousness, was taken away. He looked at Adam Brooks and held him closer.

No Pope in Rome ever sent a more impassioned prayer heavenward than the wordless plea that rose from Louis' soul.

_**OoOoOoO The Xavier Estate, May 12th, 2005 OoOoOoO**_

More than a dozen Xavier Healers stood around the bed where Victoria Xavier was trying to give birth. This had been a difficult birth, one of the hardest they'd ever attended.

Not because the process of birthing had been hard, that had gone perfectly, just as they had expected. The Xavier clan had been healing specialists for more than a thousand years and after that long, something as normal as a birth was not a problem.

The hard part had been something that they knew about. The baby about to be born was going to be a Healer when she reached puberty, and that meant she had Empathy, or the ability to feel what other people felt.

Now, as all people know, birthing can be a painful process, and that was where the Healers were having the problem. Trying to keep the unborn from feeling her mother's pain and broadcasting it back was taxing their skills to the utmost.

"This child is going to be a strong Healer," commented one of them.

"One of our strongest I think," said another, "just feel the depths of her sensitivity now, before any training."

One of the others grinned wryly. "You know what this means, don't you? Everyone on the estate is going to know when she's hungry or irritable, until she learns control."

Victoria looked up and smirked briefly before pushing one more time as she felt her daughter moving. "Does this mean I'm not going to have the night shift for awhile?"

_**OoOoOoO Malfoy Manor, June 3rd, 2005. OoOoOoO**_

Draco Malfoy stood coldly watching the healer as his wife strained to give birth to their first born child. He waited until the child was born, ignoring the muted cries of Pansy Malfoy. "Well?" he asked the healer after the child was cleaned.

The healer held out the child. "You have a beautiful daughter, Lord Malfoy."

Draco sneered, ignoring the child. "A daughter? My first born is a girl? Useless wench, just like her mother. I knew I should have married Daphne."

He looked at the child and a sneer crossed his face, followed by a mocking smile. "Name it Lisa."

The healer looked up, appalled, but Draco had already turned away and was leaving the room. She looked at Pansy Malfoy, who was staring coldly at the ceiling. "You heard the Lord," she said bitterly. "Name the brat after his mistress."

She struggled up and looked at the bundle, hate the only emotion in her eyes. "Take it to the nursery, and get a wet nurse for it. I don't want to see it again until it's leaving for Hogwarts."

_**OoOoOoO The Evans Mansion, Northern Montana, July 4th, 2005 OoOoOoO**_

Robert Evans watched his wife straining to push their children out. They had gone to both a Muggle doctor and a Healer before Mary had decided to have the children at home, and they already knew they would be having twins.

He smiled as the Healer handed their first child to the assistant waiting to clean the child up. "It's a boy," the Healer said briefly, before turning back to Mary. Robert bent down and kissed Mary.

She smiled at him, but continued to pay attention to what she was doing. She did ask for another ice chip, which Robert was only to happy to give her.

Mary was pushing at the Healer's instructions a second later and she missed the slight flow of magic that emanated from the vault below the house. Robert tensed, waiting to see what would happen and praying it was nothing.

The last thing he needed today was problems from the Object under the house. He breathed a sigh of relief as the magic faded and turned his attention back to his wife as the Healer looked up. "Congratulations. You have a daughter."

Mary and Robert looked at each other and smiled. It had been worth the eight years they had waited to have children. They looked at the Healer bringing them their children as the two babies started crying at the same time.

A few minutes later, peace was restored as the two of them received their first meal. Robert sighed. "Nine months you make me wait to hold them," he teased gently, "and as soon as they are here, they want something I can't give them."

Mary raised an eyebrow as she nursed their children. "Hand me my wand," she said sweetly, "and I'll change that for you."

Robert smiled at her. "No, thank you." he said hastily. "I think I'll go tell the others about our children."

Mary looked at him. "Not yet you won't," she said softly. "I think it's time for them to meet their father."

_**OoOoOoO Somewhere beyond our world, July 4th, 2005. OoOoOoO**_

In a place closer than your skin and yet further away than the furthest star, two misty figures look at each other.

"_That's all of them, Love."_

"_Soon enough, we will be able to rest."_ Using the power given them to fulfill their mission, they watched the children.

One of them radiated anger. _"When that Malfoy thing gets here, I am going to have words with him."_

The other one moved closer, radiating peace, calming the other. _"Greeneyes, look forward a bit."_

Following the thoughts of the other being, the one called Greeneyes looked forward, piercing the veil of time. _ "Oh my. Malfoy is in for some bad times, isn't he?"_

"_Couldn't happen to a better person."_

The two of them resumed their watch over the children that they had waited eight hundred years for.

_**OoOoOoO The Burrow, May 30th, 2006. OoOoOoO**_

Harry Potter looked around and shook his head. Red headed children were everywhere, ranging from three to newborns, less than a year old.

Bill's one child, born of his marriage to Melody Gainscourt before his death at the end of the Voldemort War nearly three years ago now.

Charlie's two, aged one and three, were curiously watching as their mother helped change Fred's twins, Harry and Sirius.

George's girls, Lily and Molly were calmly playing in the dirt, making something that made sense to their one year old minds.

Ginny had taken Tiffany inside to nurse her, claiming that fifty curious eyes didn't help her nurse.

Hermione had simply covered herself with a blanket and was nursing Emma under it, and answering the questions of the two three year old boys, one Percy's and one Luna and Neville's.

Harry grinned. Luna and Neville's child and his twins were the only children in sight that didn't have red hair. Selena had the blond locks of her mother and his twins had the Potter hair, something that their mother reminded him of every time she tried to comb it out.

He checked on his twins again, moving their portable crib a bit to keep it in the shade. James and Lily Potter were sleeping peacefully and he went back to watching the crowd.

He looked up, tensing slightly as someone passed through the wards on the Burrow. He'd never quite gotten over the caution instilled by the years of fighting Voldemort and his followers and he checked his wand as he got up and moved around to the front of the house.

He smiled as he saw who it was. Remus and Mrs. Lupin, who everyone still called Tonks were walking toward him and Tonks beamed happily at Harry. "Wotcher, Harry. She was holding their daughter and Harry grinned. Mother and child both had hair of a bright blue hue.

"Remus, Tonks." Harry tousled the four year olds hair. "Did mommy colour your hair again, Esmeralda?"

The young girl smiled but shook her head. "I do."

Harry looked at Tonks and Remus. Tonks grinned at him, proud as could be. "Watch this, Harry." She changed her hair to the vibrant pink Harry remembered from their first meeting. Esmeralda bit her lip and concentrated furiously. It took her nearly a minute, but soon her hair once again matched her mother's.

Harry smiled at her. "Very good," he praised her.

She wiggled out of her mother's arms and ran around the side of the Burrow, looking for the other children.

Harry was about to say something when another couple appeared just outside the Anti-Apparation wards. After he had identified them he turned to Remus. "Where's Sirius?"

Remus looked skyward. "Messrs Padfoot sends his regrets, but his latest masterpiece is almost done and needs careful attention."

Harry arched an eyebrow, not believing a word of it. Remus grinned. "Actually, being around all these children starts Miss Greengrass to thinking about marriage and children again, and you know how Sirius is about that."

Harry chuckled. "Why does he stay with her, if he isn't going to marry her someday?"

Sirius had met Elizabeth Greengrass during the Voldemort War and they had hit it off, but Sirius avoided the thought of marriage and children as carefully as he'd avoided Filch during his days at Hogwarts.

Remus shrugged as they turned to greet the latest arrivals. "You know Sirius. He'd die before he'd admit it, but he does love her."

Harry stared at the three coming up the drive. "Hagrid, what are you feeding Hangeld? I swear he's twice the size he was last month."

Hagrid smiled at Harry. "It's a growth spurt," he explained happily. "He's going to be a big boy."

Harry looked at Hagrid and his wife, both of whom were over three metres tall. "Gee, what a surprise," he said dryly as he led the group around the corner to the party.

Four hours later Harry sat down next to Ginny and claimed a quick kiss before lying back on the grass. "Unca Harry the horse has to end," he said, smiling. "There's just too many of them now."

Ginny smiled at Harry. "You love it, and you know it," she accused.

Harry shrugged, smiling. He sobered for a minute. "Yeah, I do. It's the least I can do for them, to make sure they have a better childhood than I did."

Ginny sighed, knowing that Harry had an obsession about that, and fully understanding why. "Harry, they're not anywhere near your situation. They all have friends and relatives that will watch over them."

She looked at Harry, smiling as she saw that playing horsie for all the children and the warm summer sun had conspired to have him drowsing. She caught Katie's eye and pointed at the twins. Katie nodded and Ginny smiled at her. With three babies in the house, she and Harry rarely got a good amount of sleep and she was going to take advantage of this. She snuggled up next to Harry.

Harry's arm came around her and the couple drifted into sleep, helped by the silencing spell Hermione put up around them so the children didn't wake them.

Fred looked at them briefly and nudged Ron. "Ron, why don't you go wake Harry again?"

Hermione looked at Fred. "If he does, I'm going to do things to you," she threatened.

Ron grabbed her. "Hermione," he said, smirking at Fred. "I may not be your equal, but you only have to blow me though a wall once to convince me not to do something again." He kissed Hermione.

Most of the adults smiled as they remembered that scene. Ron had woken Harry suddenly after the War, just once. Harry and Ginny's bedroom in Godric's Hollow had gotten a new window and Ron had forgiven Harry almost as soon as the broken bones had healed.

Since then, it was accepted that if you wanted Harry awake, you went and got Ginny. She could wake Harry without fireworks, although how was her secret. Questioning Harry about it just led to silence as his face turned red.

Questioning Ginny got almost the same response, along with a traditional Bat Bogey Hex.

Grandmother Weasley was in heaven. She had more than fifty people to take care of, and children everywhere. Between the cooking and picking up any child that came in reach for a minute's cuddling, she was as happy as she could be.

She felt a pang that Arthur had not lived to see all his grandchildren, and that brought to mind the two of her children that had not survived the Voldemort War, Percy and Bill. She shook that off as she reached out to grab little Tiffany as she tottered by.

She set her down a minute later and went inside, checking on dinner, aware of her shadow but used to it after all this time.

Dobby had tried to help her the first time Harry had brought him with them, and Molly had absolutely refused the help. "The day I can't take care of my family is the day you will be putting me in the ground," she declared.

Dobby couldn't understand how one human could do so much without any Elf magic and he would follow her around every time he was here, watching her. It had made her nervous at first but she got used to it. Her face flamed red as she remembered Harry laughing as he told her that she was Dobby's role model now.

Dinner would be another twenty minutes she saw and pulled her wand from under her apron strings. She summoned the dishes that Harry had bought as a gift one Christmas. She hated to use the good china, as she called it, but it was the only set of dishes in the Burrow that would feed this horde.

She set the dishes on the table in here and stepped outside. "Excuse me," she called, watching her children look at her. That the older grand babies did as well brought a smile to her face. "Ron, Ginny, get the dishes. Fred, George, set up the tables. Charlie, you're in charge of making sure those two don't destroy anything."

Ginny went into the house past Molly, and her mother heard her counting under her breath "Three, two, one, now."

"Ginny, come get Harry out of the way." Molly smiled at the sight of Fred and George levitating the tables, but unable to set them down since Harry was still napping in middle of the grass where the tables went.

Just then Tiffany decided it was time for Daddy to play again. She toddled over and thumped down on his chest. She started to slide off and Harry's arm came up, easing her down without Harry ever waking up.

Tiffany struggled around and kissed Daddy on the nose. Harry opened his eyes, blinking as he saw a dozen adults smiling at him. He smirked at them, and said something the silencing charm Hermione hadn't taken down yet stopped. Father and daughter disappeared, with Harry not even bothering to stand up.

"Does he have to do that?" Fred complained.

George looked at Fred. "I think he only does it to drive us nuts figuring out how he can Apparate laying down and appear standing up."

Ginny smirked at them both. "Actually, it's easy, once you know how." She looked up. "Harry James Potter, if you drop our daughter I'm going to hurt you."

The rest of them looked up. Harry was sitting on the roof and levitating his daughter around in circles. Tiffany was laughing and screaming in fun, holding her hands out as her father tossed small balls at her. He would move her into place to catch them, and she caught maybe half of them.

Hagrid applauded. "I think I see a seeker's hands there, Harry."

He grinned as Emma tried to throw one of the missed balls back to Harry. "And here's a little chaser," he said, picking her up and boosting her closer to Harry.

Hermione sighed. "Only if she gets good grades. I insist she have something to do besides play a game."

Ron grinned. "You've not complained about me playing the game."

Hermione cocked an eyebrow at him. "Exactly my point."

Ron started to smirk and then realized what she'd said. "Hey."

The dinner table was set amidst laughter and good natured ribbing. That set the tone for the rest of the day and a good time was had by all.

_**OoOoOoO The Evan's Mansion, Northern Montana, USA, May 30th 2006 OoOoOoO**_

"Mary, where's James?"

"He was on the porch a minute ago."

"He's not there now."

Mary Evans sighed and set Rose down in the playpen James had gotten out of again. "Why isn't your brother more like you?" She turned to help her husband find their wandering child. "Did you look under the porch?"

"Yes, first thing. He's not around back either."

Mary shaded her eyes and looked at Rose. She was staring out toward the road and Mary followed her gaze.

James Evans was toddling as fast as he could toward the woods on the other side of the driveway to the house. Mary sighed and Apparated in front of him. James looked up at her and Mary didn't miss the darkening color in those eyes.

She sighed and bent to pick him up. He squirmed and fought, but she got him back to the playpen. She looked at the pen, tying to figure out how he'd gotten out this time.

Finally, she cast a spell over the playpen, one that would prevent anything larger than a Knut from entering or leaving.

She went around the side of the house to find Robert and tell him she had corralled the wanderer again.

James was looking at the woods until Rose poked him. He looked at her. She felt his frustration, the longing to be in that place. He felt her sadness that he couldn't get there.

The two of them turned their attention to the playpen. James laid down and Rose stood on him, only to find the barrier. She poked and prodded it for a minute, but it didn't give and she got off of James as his back began to hurt.

They looked at each other for a minute and then started playing, much like any other young children left alone for a few minutes.

At the side of the house, Robert and Mary looked at each other. "They cooperate, and that is how he keeps getting out."

Mary nodded, her mind full of what they'd just seen. "Just wait," she predicted, "they're going to be a handful by the time they go to the North American Academy of Magic."

"Not if James manages to get into the woods. We may never get him out of there. Have you noticed how he is around the animals, even the wild ones?"

Mary winced. "How could I miss it? He doesn't have any fear of the animals at all, and he's going to get hurt because of it," she predicted.

Robert frowned thoughtfully. "Grandmother was the same way. I think we should take James and Rose out to White Owl and Rolling Thunder."

Mary thought about it. Robert's grandmother had been a Medicine Woman of the Flathead tribe of Indians and her family still held the positions of Shaman and Medicine Woman to this day. "We should take them out to meet their cousins anyway. While we're there, we can mention James' habit to them. I'm sure they know more about animals and the woods than I do."

Robert snickered as he hugged Mary. "Maybe if you'd ever seen a real forest before you were married, that would be different."

Mary sighed. "Not my fault. Tribune doesn't have a forest, and some of us weren't rich enough to travel around the country."

Mary Drake, now Mary Evans had been a tailor in America's largest Magical city when she met Robert and fell in love, and tailors are not the best paid people in the world. Mary's need to keep a low profile had not helped either. "Let's make a trip out there next week, shall we?"

_**OoOoOoO Somewhere, Somewhen. OoOoOoO**_

_The two beings smiled as one. "Everything is going perfectly."_

"_There's still ten more years," cautioned the other, "before we can relax. Until they meet things could be derailed."_

"_That, Greeneyes," said the other dryly, "is why we're here still. We'll get them all together."_

_The other being was concentrating on something and the first being felt his anger. It followed his concentration. "Love, stop watching the Patient Child. It will only upset you."_

_The being called Greeneyes moved closer to the other one. "I know, but I have to. I have decided that that one, the father will never pass beyond the veil. I will use the gift to stop it. He is the cause of more suffering than the world has yet seen."_

_The first being, who had a female presence, moved closer to the one called Greeneyes. "Love," she said, "he doesn't know what he does."_

"_If he did, would he change?"_

_The female being looked at the world again. "No. He would only wish that the Patient Child would win, and possibly help."_

_The tone of the male being was final and as implacable os the sunrise. "That is why I will destroy that soul when it gets here."_

_**OoOoOoO Here and Now. OoOoOoO**_

_Not a lot of difference in the first few chapters, although I am going to slash a lot of details. Those of you that want to know the details about the training they do can check out Prophecy, which has far too many details about their training and bogged the story down._

_Between Birth and the Sorting Ceremony, there will not be any changes, and I'm simply going to take those chapters from Prophecy and rewrite them a bit._

_After the Sorting Ceremony... Well, few things will be usable, and I'll have to start writing each chapter._


	2. Life Is Good, Mostly

_Right... Here we go with the last completely new chapter before we get back into the beginning of the original Prophecy. We're going to find out a bit about our friends and their families. Let's take a look at the last carefree summer of the Eight, and two others._

_**The Prophecy of Eight**_

_**Chapter Two**_

_**Life is Good, Mostly.**_

_**OoOoOoO The Evans, The Evans Estate, Montana. June 05th 2014 OoOoOoO**_

"Rose, where is James? We have to leave now if we're going to be on time." Mary Evans didn't bother calling for James. Rose could find him faster, and even talk to him, since their insane stunt two months ago. She shivered again, remembering James pushing the door open with a bloody Rose in his arms and two small girls following him.

Rose Evans closed her eyes and felt for the presence that was always in the back of her head now. _"James? Where are you? We're going to be late for the Match."_ She knew about where he was, and he wasn't far, and getting closer quickly.

"_Relax, Flower Child. I'm coming. We'll be there to kick Michael's a-."_

"_James Tiberius Evans, don't finish that thought!"_

Rose looked around as she heard a horse coming. As she thought, James was on Buttercup again. She stayed well back and he drew the sixteen hand Appaloosa stallion to a stop. _"See? I told you I'd be here."_ James rubbed the stallion's neck affectionately. He took off the hackamore that was his only gear and looked the horse in the eye. "Go to the barn. Do not bite anything on the way. Close your stall behind you."

The stallion eyed James for a minute and blew loudly. He started toward the barn, looking back to see if James was watching. James was, and Rose shook her head. Those two were just freaky. James was the only two legged creature that could get close to the stallion, and very few four legged creatures were willing to test the temper of the horse. They heard the stallion's stall door thump closed and James started toward the house.

"_James, why is there blood on the back of your shirt?"_ Rose was worried. They had a Quidditch Match in less than two hours, and if James was hurt again. Her train of thought was interrupted.

"_Relax. I just got scratched a bit on a low hanging branch._" In James' mind was a picture of running Buttercup through the forest.

Rose caught up with James and lifted his shirt. It was just a scratch, easily taken care of. Rose sighed. James' idea of a "scratch" and other people's idea of one didn't always match. She grinned to herself as she remembered a time James had called three claw marks running from his collarbone to his waist a "scratch".

Mary Evans smiled as she watched the twins coming toward the house. They were still young enough that they were physically very simular. Both of them had black hair and the Evans eyes, with strong features that would be arresting when they were older. They were built from the same mould as well, both with the athletic build of children that spent more time outside than indoors.

Mary rolled her eyes at that thought. James would never come inside if he didn't have to. Somewhere back in the Indian heritage they had gotten from their father, whose grandmother had been a Flathead Indian was a wild nature and James had gotten his share and Rose's. He was far more comfortable in the buckskins and moccasins of his cousins than he was in regular Muggle wear or robes.

That he was more comfortable in the woods of their native Montana and with the wildlife that roamed them worried her. Rose was more normal than James in that respect, preferring jeans and blouses over robes or buckskins. She smiled at them as they came in and Rose turned James around to show Mary his back.

She sighed and pulled out a vial of the Healing ointment the Indians made for minor injuries. At least this time it wasn't an animal's attack that caused this.

Ten minutes later, the Evans family was on its way to the North American Junior Quidditch Championship.

"It's a beautiful day for Quidditch, friends and we've got two great teams here today. For those of you that are new to the Championship, here is Donald Meyer, the Secretary of Magical Education and Sports to fill us in."

"Good afternoon, Quidditch fans. As most of you know, all of the local leagues keep the statistics on their players, and from those stats each year, the Department of Magical Education and Sports chooses the best fourteen players from across the continent. This year, we have two firsts. James and Rose Evans are appearing in their third Junior Championship, having been the Beaters for the red team in each of the two preceding years. Many of the younger Beaters will be glad to know that they start at one of the Magical schools next year, and will not be eligible to play in this league."

"This year is also the first year we have three members of a single family in the Championship. Michael Evans, cousin to Rose and James, is the Keeper for the Blue team."

"The other players are as follows. For the Red team, Charles Magnum of Merced, California is the Team Captain and Keeper. Their Chasers are Miguel Sanchez of Tijuana, Mexico, Juanita Cortes of Mexico City, Mexico and Gabriella Mercier of Alberta, Canada. The Seeker is another Canadian, Gary Joinville. As I said earlier, James and Rose Evans, of Yaak, Montana are the Beaters."

"For the Blue team, Michael Evans of Yaak, Montana is the Keeper. Mary Stuart is the Captain and lead Chaser, with William Percy of Clarksville, Tennessee and Darya Monroe of Evansville, Indiana filling the other two Chaser positions. The Beaters for the blue team are from totally different areas, but both of them have shown amazing skill, which they will need against the Evans twins. Jesus Sanchez is from New York City, New York and Ch'eng Tsu is from Buenos Aires, Argentina originally, until his parents moved here last year. Now from Tribune, he's fast becoming a local celebrity for his Quidditch play."

"Let's give a big welcome to the teams as they come out for the twenty-fourth Annual Junior Quidditch Championship!"

"Thank you, Secretary Meyer. The Red team has won this Match three years running. Can they keep the streak alive this year, or will this be the year the Blue team snaps their winning ways and goes home victorious?"

Rose and James were in the locker room. James was pacing back and forth. "I've seen the stats on Tsu. He's very good. Driven to excel, and nearly dangerous, even with the modified Bludgers they make us use." James looked up. Rose had heard all of this before and was pretending to sleep. The rest of the team had gotten used to the twins and their ways over the last two weeks as they practised.

"James, you said that yesterday." Gary sighed. "We'll be careful, not that I expect him to see much of the Bludger. You two are bloody uncanny with those things."

"Especially since they never talk to each other. I think they're some military experiment, two bodies with one brain." Charles grinned at them to show he was joking.

James grinned. "Actually, we used a spell I modified that was designed to simulate a bonding to create a permanent mind link between ourselves." James said all of that with a straight face and his team mates stared at him for a minute before bursting out laughing.

"That was good," said Gary admiringly, "you didn't crack even a slight smile."

James grinned again. _"Better,_" he told Rose, "_since every word was the complete truth._" Since James used the mind link he'd spoken of, no one else heard him and Rose sent him a mental picture of her rolling her eyes. James sent her a picture of him sticking his tongue out, and Rose sent it back, with his tongue a bright blue. James coloured as she reminded him of the time he'd stuck his tongue out at their mother and Rose smirked as she chalked up a point for her.

They were all distracted then, as the bell that told them they had five minutes before the match rang. Charles looked around. "We're good. Very good and I expect us to prove it out there. We all know what to do and how to do it." He glanced at James and Rose. "Since you two are the senior members of this team, and this is your last year, would you lead us out?"

James grinned at him. "I would be honored, if I didn't think you were allowing us this honor so you could see if we change colors as we go out the door."

Laughter came from the team as they lined up. Four days running, the first person out the door during practises had changed colors and the rest of the team was still trying to figure out how the twins had done it. They led the way to the door and James bent down, allowing Rose to climb on his back. She reached over the door and pulled down a small disk from the frame over the door.

James stood up after she was back on the ground and smirked at the others. "It was only good for a week anyway."

"You and those disks," groused Miguel. "At least you could sell me a few."

James grinned. "We'll be glad to, after we're done and we don't have to watch everything we do, looking for your revenge, Mr. Pink."

Miguel rolled his eyes. "Pink is not my color, you know."

They lined up behind James and Rose, waiting for their signal to fly out. James grinned at Miguel. "Next time, I'll make sure you're another color," he promised. The bell sounded again and the Evans twins flew out to greet the crowd. The rest of the team followed.

"Here come the defending champions. Let's give a warm welcome to the red team!" James and Rose led the team around the Pitch, flying circles around each other, close enough that they could have held hands.

The link they shared was the only thing that allowed them to fly that close together and they took full advantage of it. Cheers rose, and they played to the crowd. James didn't really like it, but Rose understood people, and made him follow her lead in this. "_Sounds like a pack of rabid wolves,_" he groused.

Rose sighed. "_They're cheering for us, James, not for our heads_."

"_Sure they are._"

Rose sighed. Give James the most violent and bloody animal in the woods, and he was fine. Usually, he'd have the beast eating out of his hand in a week. Put him around people though, and he acted as if they were aliens from another planet. Rose sometimes thought James was wilder than any of the animals he brought home occasionally.

She pushed those thoughts aside as they landed to watch the blue team come out.

"And our Challengers, the blue team!"

Rose and James watched them as they flew around the Pitch. "_Tsu is good,_" Rose said, _"He's got a deft hand on the broom."_

"Look at their left-hand chaser," James said aloud, so the whole team could hear him. "He's flying a bit wide, as if he's not sure of the others."

Charles nodded. "Good eye. I expect you'll be exploiting that hole."

James turned and looked at him. "Exploiting? If that means we're going to push him as wide as we can, then yes."

The two teams were introduced and the referees came out. Unlike a professional game, the Junior games had four referees, all dressed in white. They were there not so much to watch the game play, but to make sure that no one got hurt. Even with the softer and modified Bludgers they used, a person hit right could still be knocked off their Broomstick.

"And the game begins! The red Team takes early control of the Quaffle and the Bludgers, with James and Rose showing the form that has earned them a spot on this team three years running."

James and Rose swept everything else away and sank into their bond. With both of them aware of the other all the time and able to talk without anyone else hearing, keeping the blue team away from their goals was easy.

If anyone knew about their link, they would call it cheating, but James didn't care. It was an advantage and he exploited it ruthlessly. James was a serious competitor, striving to always win, no matter the odds or the game.

After an hour of play, the blue team called a time out to replace a Broomstick with a cracked handle, where the chaser had glanced off the stands. Ch'eng Tsu flew by the stands and an older Asian man called something to him.

James and Rose noted the change in the blue team's play as soon as they came back. _"Rose, watch left!"_

Rose ducked right and Ch'eng Tsu flew by, missing her by inches. "_He was trying to hit me,_" Rose said in amazement.

James frowned as Tsu sent a Bludger at his head. _"Something has changed. Watch him while I try to break their Chaser formation."_

James flew toward a Bludger only to have to duck as Tsu flew by, with his feet on a level with James' head. Only Rose's warning kept him from a kick in the back of the head.

They collected the Bludgers and sent them both high, after the Blue Seeker. While they waited for them to return, they watched Tsu break up their Chasers by flying right though them, forcing them to move or collide.

James flew toward Tsu. "_Watch him. I want to see something."_ James settled in on a course that would bring him close but not intersect Tsu's path.

Tsu saw him coming, as James wanted and altered his course so James had to pull up or hit him.

"_That was deliberate_." James was frowning and Rose felt the first flickers of anger in James.

"_James, as long as he doesn't hit anyone, he's within the rules._" Rose sent a calming feeling down their link. The last thing they needed was for James to explode in the middle of a Match being watched by most of North America. The secret their mother had kept for nearly twenty years would be blown to hell if that happened.

James nodded. _"Let's spend some time working on him. We need to keep him away from the others. I'll be the target and you watch my back._"

They started shooting Bludgers at Tsu, making sure he didn't have time to harass their Chasers. Since he was a Beater, he could hit the Bludgers back, and James seemed to always have his eyes somewhere else when Tsu hit a Bludger.

Rose though, kept James informed, and the Bludgers never touched him, which made Tsu angrier as the Match went on.

At the three hour mark the score was the Red team ninety, the Blue team seventy.

James and Rose were keeping Tsu busy and with the three of them using the Bludgers, the rest of the teams were flying against each other.

At least until Tsu ignored a Bludger and shot down, diving on the red team Chasers from above. He blew by them and James saw his foot hit one of them in the head, causing Miguel to veer and run into Juanita. She fell, only to be caught by a referee. She was set on the ground and James waited for the penalty call. It didn't come and James frowned. Apparently, he was the only one that had seen the deliberate foul.

He fought his anger, not wanting his team to go down a Beater.

As the fifth hour of the game began, the Snitch finally made its appearance and everyone paused to watch the Seekers chase it. With a score separated by only thirty points, this would decide the game and James and Rose cheered as Gary Joinville caught it after a short chase.

"The red team wins again, for the fourth consecutive year!"

The two teams flew down and landed to shake hands. James shook hands with Tsu. He looked at the Asian boy. "Your tactics are borderline. Kicking people in the head goes over that line though."

James spoke softly, and only Ch'eng Tsu heard him. The other boy colored but remained silent.

The two teams returned to their locker rooms to change and each of the members of the red team found a small pouch of disks in their lockers. James just grinned. "Use them in good fun, and look for them in stores soon."

They finished dressing and went out to find their parents for the awards ceremony. James and Rose took a short cut between two buildings and heard an angry voice. They slowed and stopped.

"You are useless. A pathetic waste of blood and flesh. I am ashamed to call you kin, let alone my son. It must be your mother's blood that makes you a loser."

James' anger flared as the diatribe continued, and Rose had a hand on his arm until they heard one last comment. "Maybe what you need is another reminder of your place." The threat was followed by a solid thud of flesh striking flesh and James' restraint disappeared.

They went around the corner to find Tsu being held up by one arm as an older Asian man struck him in the chest again. Ch'eng Tsu's face contorted with pain and James' anger flared, into the rage. Rose swore, but she wasn't far from rage herself.

It wasn't until James was behind the older man that she figured out what he was going to do and her anger disappeared under fear. _"James, No! We don't_."

She stopped as James put every prank disk he had on the man at once and activated them all.

The flash of light was eclipsed only by the scream that rose from the man's throat and then trickled away to a bubbling gurgle.

Rose was holding James by the arms as an outcry came, and people started pouring into the alley.

She looked over his shoulder and gagged. The thing in the robes the man had been wearing bore little resemblance to anything alive, and she only knew it was alive because the heart and lungs of the thing were on the outside and still moving. James kept trying to break free, to attack the thing again.

Ch'eng Tsu stared at his father in horror.

Robert Evans came up and swore silently. He knew what James had done, but not why and damn it, this was going to be messy. He came up and quietly stunned the still struggling James.

Four hours later, Rose was sitting by James' bed when he woke up. _"Ch'eng is fine. He wasn't happy to have his secret exposed, but I wasn't going to let you get into the trouble you would have been in if we didn't tell people what we saw."_

James blinked, still groggy from the stunning. _"And the scumbucket? What of him?"_

Rose winced. _"The Healers say it will be a couple of weeks before he's back to normal. He would never be normal, if most of our pranks didn't wear off in an hour or so."_

"_Pity I didn't have some of the longer ones."_

Rose grabbed James by the hair. _"You listen to me, Mr. Evans. Our father kept you from being banished only by paying for his care, and even that wouldn't have worked if he wasn't fixable."_

James growled. _"Are you saying that he can hit Ch'eng, and nobody cares?"_

"_They care, but you nearly killed him, James."_

"_So?"_

Rose sighed. _"James, he's not one of your animals. He's a man, with all the rights thereof. That includes the right not to be killed simply because he offended us."_

James looked at Rose. _"I know he's not one of my animals. They wouldn't do something like that. And you wonder why I don't like most people."_

Rose sighed. Sometimes, she could almost agree with James.

_**OoOoOoO The Weasleys, Potters and Hagrids, The Burrow. June 14, 2014 OoOoOoO**_

Tiffany nodded at her ally and they attacked their target. Both of them grabbed a leg and tried to pull the boy over. Hangeld looked down and the girls wrestling his ankles and picked them both up, one in each hand. "Emma, Tiffany, what do you think you're doing?"

Hangeld Hagrid had inherited the massive size of his half Giant parents. He was only nine years old, but he stood two metres tall and had more muscle to move that mass than most teenagers. His hair and eyes were the dark brown of his father, although his features were a bit softer, courtesy of his mother.

He set the girls down as he waited for their answer. Emma grinned at him. "Trying to knock you over, of course." Emma Weasley would stand out in any crowd. She had gotten the bushy mane of thick wavy hair that was her mother's, and it was the red of a Weasley born. The two combined stood out like a flag.

The only other thing that was easily noticeable about her was happy nature. Emma was incurably cheerful, looking at the entire world as one big adventure created just for her and her friends. Since it was just for them, everyone in the world was just a friend she hadn't met yet.

Tiffany nodded. "You're much too tall to talk to standing up, so we thought we'd bring you down a bit." Tiffany Potter had the same red shade of hair Emma did but it was more like her father's hair, which is why Tiffany never cut it. The longer it was, the better it behaved. She had no desire to go though life looking like a scarecrow. Honestly, daddy's hair was a constant case of bed head, even when he hadn't slept in a day or so. Tiffany had also gotten her daddy's eyes, the brilliant green of his mother's eyes, Lily Evans.

Hangeld sighed and sat down. "Wouldn't it have been easier to ask me to sit down?"

Emma frowned at him. "Where's the fun in that?"

Hangeld just sighed. Emma was irrepressible. Not that he really minded. No one here ever said anything about his size or his ancestry, even though they all knew that both of his parents had been half-Giants.

Hangeld and the girls chatted for almost fifteen minutes before Emma was urging them to do something else. Her two best friends continued to talk while watching her. Emma was physically incapable of sitting still for long and a very short time, she was wandering around the garden behind the Burrow, still home to Molly Weasley and whichever Weasley child was visiting this week.

Since Ron and Hermione lived just over the hill in back of the Burrow, Emma didn't even need the Floo to visit grandmother Weasley.

"Hangeld, come help me." Hangeld and Tiffany went to see what Emma was doing and found her holding a garden gnome. "Toss him for me, Hangeld. I can't throw them far enough."

Hangeld sighed and grabbed the gnome by his arm. A second later the gnome was flying though the air as the girls watched. "Good throw," Emma said, smiling at Hangeld. "Those things are overrunning the garden, grand mum says."

That started a gnome hunt, with Tiffany and Emma chasing them down and Hangeld throwing them over the fence. That lasted for almost an hour and after that the three of them flew the modified Broomsticks that Harry had gotten for all the various Weasley grandchildren and the children of most of his friends.

They wouldn't go very high or very fast, but they were fun for younger children. They flew until Molly Weasley called them inside for lunch. She watched them as they ate. Tiffany and Emma had normal appetites for their age, but Hangeld could eat as much as Ron ever had. Of course, with his size, that was a normal appetite.

Molly sighed as she looked at the quiet boy. Olympe Hagrid had contracted one of the wasting diseases that even Wizard Healers couldn't do anything about and died when Hangeld was seven, two years ago now. Since then, Molly had tried to be a surrogate mother to him, as she'd mothered every child to pass through her door for the last forty years.

The rest of the day passed in more play, until Harry showed up to collect Tiffany. Molly came out to see Harry giving Emma a ride on his Broomstick, a ride that consisted of Harry performing some of the more daring acrobatics Molly had seen in a few years.

Emma was laughing and urging Uncle Harry to go faster. Molly winced as Harry performed a Wronski Feint, eliciting more laughter from Emma.

Hangeld and Tiffany were on the little Broomsticks, and trying to follow Harry as best they could, considering Harry was using a Firebolt Nova, the fourth model of the Firebolt Broomstick Co. It wasn't the best Broomstick anymore, not since the Nimbus Co had released the Nimbus 2014 and the Firebolt Co. had released the Firebolt Supernova, but it was far better than most people had.

Molly smiled to herself. She suspected that Harry would soon have the newest Firebolt, as soon as he convinced Ginny that he needed it. She sighed. Harry was a regular Seeker in pick up games, but the Voldemort War had prevented him from playing Quidditch professionally and afterward Harry had been given the tasking of rebuilding the Aurors, all but decimated by the War.

He'd also used his experience training the DA to create a standard seven year plan for the DADA class at Hogwarts, a plan that had proven so effective that Durmstrang's and Beaubaxtons had both picked it up and several other schools from around the world were considering it.

These days, Harry was researching new ways to improve the DADA curriculum and working with the Aurors to create an effective Dark Lord detection program, aimed at catching them before they got as bad as Voldemort had.

Hermione came from around the house and sighed. "Harry Potter, what do you think you're doing?"

Harry grinned at his oldest friend. "I think I'm taking my Goddaughter for a ride." He demonstrated by doing a double barrel roll to Emma's screams for more.

Hermione shook her head resignedly. Emma was always wired after on of her flights with Harry, and she wouldn't settle down for hours. Privately, Hermione didn't mind, but she had to keep up appearances.

All in all, it was just another day in the lives of the three friends.

_**OoOoOoO Melissa Xavier, The Xavier Estate, June 20th, 2014. OoOoOoO**_

Melissa frowned as she pored over a text book. The reaction table for potions ingredients was involved. Don't add this, don't mix those... This was going to be a pain. She was reading about the uses of Beetle eyes and what not to mix it with when her Empathy registered someone in distress.

Empathy was the ability to feel another's emotions. You couldn't read their thoughts or anything like that, but you could tell exactly how they felt. It was a common talent in the Xavier family, Wizards and Witches who had studied healing for over a thousand years. Even their Squibs studies Muggle medicine, bringing that knowledge back to the clan, to be incorporated into the store of knowledge, and evaluated to see if it could be used magically somehow.

Melissa frowned as the distress continued. She could, with a great deal of effort, shield against it, but it felt wrong to her, like deliberately blinding yourself, or removing any of your senses. Empathy was just that to those that had it, another sense. She got up and began following the feeling. She followed it outside and found a younger cousin sitting by a hole. She sat down next to him. "What's wrong?" she asked gently, doing the one thing that let everyone know she would be a Healer when she achieved puberty. She reached out and broadcast soothing emotions to the young boy.

A person with Empathy could feel your emotions, but not broadcast their own. That ability was tied to the Healing talent, and was far rarer than Empathy. The Healing talent was sex-linked, occurring only in women, and allowed the Healer to use their magic to create a healing energy, which manifested as a green glow. It would fix almost anything, and far faster than any spell or potion.

"My ball rolled down the hole and I can't get it back." Melissa smiled at him. If only all distress was this easy to fix. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the hole. "Accio ball," she said, concentrating on getting the spell right.

A few seconds later, the ball rolled out of the hole and Melissa gave it to her cousin. "I'd find a new place to play with it, OK?"

He smiled and Melissa felt her gratitude and happiness as he ran off to play. He didn't say thank you, but Melissa didn't care as she retraced her steps to the library. The calm restored to the emotional aura of the estate was all the thanks she needed.

She put her wand away, thankful that her family started teaching their children about magic at a young age. The Xavier family believed that lessons taught early were better, and more easily learned, an idea that Muggles were beginning to learn. It would probably take another hundred years for the rest of the Wizard world to figure it out though, as they were beset by Custom, which stated that children under eleven shouldn't be taught magic.

Melissa went back to her book, aware that her life's path would be dictated by her Healing talent. Once the talent manifested, in her twelfth or thirteenth year, she would have to use it. Not using it would cause the Healer increasing pain until it was used.

Since Melissa would be a Healer, one of her classes in her schooling had always been about healing. Anatomy, basic first aid, magical and Muggle, and more, including classes on the ethics of healers. The Xavier family was proud of being the finest healers in the world, with a reputation unmatched anywhere, and they were determined to maintain that. A healer without ethics was a terrible thing, capable of using their training to inflict injury and pain unmatched even by the Cruciatus Curse.

The Xavier family would not let that happen.

_**OoOoOoO Lisa Malfoy, Malfoy Estate, June 20th, 2014. OoOoOoO**_

Lisa stood patiently, listening to her father rant about Pureblood Superiority and the Malfoy name again. She glanced at her little brother, Draco Jr. and sighed silently. He was totally absorbed in what their father was saying. He believed all this tripe.

Lisa had learned not to question the rants aloud, but she had read too many things and been tormented by too many people to believe this line of thought. She nodded in all the right places though, and kept her opinions to herself.

She was not stupid, and arguing with her father would only bring pain. Since Lisa was not fond of being hit or hexed, she kept her thoughts quiet and thanked Merlin regularly that Draco Sr. had never learned Legilimency. "_Not,_" she thought irritably, "_that he'd bothered to learn much after leaving Hogwarts, except how to play the Game of Houses better._"

An hour or so later, after a verbal test on what her father had been saying, Lisa finally escaped to the Malfoy library, the one place where her father wouldn't go. He had not set foot in the library since the day the Aurors left, taking every book or a dark or questionable nature with them.

They had also taken a lot of other things with them, some of which Draco hadn't even known about until then. It was his own fault, Lisa knew, since he'd turned Lucius Malfoy in as a Death Eater to avoid Azkaban. Lucius had not told Draco everything before that, but under Veritaserum, he'd told the Ministry everything he knew.

Lisa looked around, making sure she was the only one in the room and then checked her traps. Someone had triggered the first one, she saw and smiled. She'd know soon enough who it was, although she thought it was either the little brat or a House Elf under orders. The rest were undisturbed however and she quickly disarmed them and pulled out the books that she had bought in Diagon Alley.

If her father ever found out she owned these, she'd be very lucky to continue living. Few things could send Draco Sr into a murderous fury faster than the mention of the names Harry Potter, Hermione Granger or Ginny Weasley.

Ron Weasley could set him off, but not as badly. Having read "The Voldemort War, An Insider's Tale.", she could understand that. Harry Potter had killed Voldemort, ruining all the plans of Lucius and Draco Sr, and Ginny Weasley had been the one that had used a magically created whip to beat Draco so badly that he still had the scars of that beating.

That she'd done it in the middle of Diagon Alley, with more than fifty laughing witnesses, only made the flames of hate well higher.

His hate, though was mainly aimed at Hermione Granger-Weasley. Besides being a Mudblood, she was smarter than Draco, stronger magically and an author. It was that last point that keep Draco at a slow boil. Hermione Granger had written "The Voldemort War, An Insider's Tale," and she had written the complete truth about the war, as told by Professor Dumbledore, Remus, Sirius, and other survivors of the first part of the war.

She, Harry and Ron had supplied the details about the second phase of the war, with collaborating details from everyone they could find, including Victor Krum and Fleur Delacourt.

Needless to say, the book did not paint a very good picture of the Malfoys. The Malfoy name was becoming a swear word and a serious insult to most of the Wizard world. Lisa had done some quiet research and had been unable to refute any of the details in the book however.

She sighed, staring at the picture of Marnet Malfoy, the only Malfoy to win an Order of Merlin, first class. Four hundred years ago, he had led the fight against the Dark Lord of his time. Now, the Malfoys were the dark lords. Lisa stared at her ancestor and a slow resolve grew in her heart. She would restore the family name.

If a family could fall from such a height, they could regain it.

_**OoOoOoO Adam Brooks, Surrey, June 21st, 2014. OoOoOoO**_

"Creating different colors is an art all in its self, and will be the basis of this class."

Adam Brooks sat and listened as the instructor lectured about the nuances of creating shades of color. He looked around, noting that as usual, he was the youngest person in the art class by at least a decade.

As he listened to the instructor, Adam began drawing a scene from his memory. Most people would not have remembered a scene they saw once last week well enough to recreate it in a drawing, but Adam had already discovered that he was unusual in that regard.

Adam had something called an eidetic memory. In simpler terms, Adam never forgot anything he saw or heard. That made him a bit different, and he'd taken a bit of teasing in school for it, but Adam had learned to deflect the teasing.

Adam Brooks was a quiet boy, short, with brown hair and eyes that allowed him to fade into the background and observe things. Between his size, and his quiet, polite nature, Adam was far more popular with the females of his age group than the guys.

Adam's one quirk that everyone thought was a bit strange was a fascination with the American Old West, as expressed in Louis L'Amour books. Adam could recite entire sections of the books from memory, and had espoused the "Sackett" family as a near perfect example of family and kin.

Where Adam had gotten this fascination was unknown, as he had not been out of England in his life. Mr. Louis Brooks was a good man, but his imagination was limited to hoping his team won the series, cup, championship, or whatever the pinnacle of the season was. He loved his son, but he didn't understand him.

Mrs. Rochelle Brooks loved Adam dearly, all the more since he would be the only child she would ever have. The difficulty of his birth had made it inadvisable for her to have another child. She understood Adam better than his father did, as Adam got his artistic talent from her. She was a sculptor, rather than a painter, but her designs sold well, and if anyone had actually checked, she made more than her husband. The Brooks, however, were just another middle class family, and nothing about them really stood out, and they didn't do anything that caused gossip.

In short, they were so average that nobody saw them at all.

_**OoOoOoO Somewhere, Somewhen. OoOoOoO**_

The light called Greeneyes was fuming again. He was watching the children he'd waited centuries for and the actions of some of the people around them was just... annoying.

Annoying most beings is bad, but these two beings had been tasked with watching over a Prophecy, and that had made them something more.

Every true Prophecy has a Guardian, or in this case, two Guardians, to watch over the events on earth and make sure the Prophecy events happened in the correct order. They did not influence which side of the Prophecy won, merely insuring that the Prophecy came together.

To that end, they were given great power to influence events, nudge fate and basically work behind the scenes to accomplish their goal. Direct interaction was possible only once, so most of the Guardians saved that for very special occasions or dire emergencies.

Greeneyes frowned as one of his charges was hurt again. _"I am going to make him regret his life," _he said and the other being merged with him.

The other being watched for a minute. _"I know you hate watching this, Greeneyes, but this is only forging her Honor to a steel edge. We need that sense of Honor. This is needed."_

"_I know that, Love. It doesn't make this any easier to watch."_

The two moved on, watching over all of their charges. That was, after all, all they could do for now. The events had happened, the people were in place and now, they could only watch.

Once more, they would be called on to do something, and then they would rest.

_**OoOoOoO The Author, Here and Now. OoOoOoO**_

_The next chapter will be a rewrite of Prophecy, chapter one, and things will continue about the same, until the Sorting. The Sorting is going to be very different._

_Raven_


	3. Nightmares, Manipulations and Revelation

_Those of you that have read Prophecy will recognize large bits of this, which are taken from chapter one of Prophecy. I have added a small section from the other people involved in the upcoming events, things that were cut from chapter one of Prophecy because, and I quote here, "Nobody wants to read chapters that are 20,000 words plus. Fan fiction readers just aren't that patient." (Hey, I didn't know any better then, OK?) And that said, let's look in on the players on this stage, the summer they get their letters for Hogwarts._

_**The Prophecy of Eight**_

_**Chapter Three**_

_**Nightmares, Manipulations and Revelations.**_

_**OoOoOoO James and Rose, The Evans Estate, 30MAR2016 OoOoOoO**_

James Evans woke suddenly in the night. His bed was sweat soaked, as if he had a fever, or had been having a nightmare. He concentrated on the link he shared with his twin. Rose was gripped in the throes of a nightmare, and it was her terror that had woken James. He sent soothing emotions down their link, trying to ease her out of it, but she was past the point where that would work. He got up and put on his robe.

James' room was the room of a boy with many assorted interests, in both the Muggle and wizard worlds. A computer shared desk space with spell books, and a shelf held a baseball bat and a old battered Nimbus 2000. On his table, the unfinished model of a 57 Chevy crowded a simmering potion. His main interest was plain though, as one entire wall was covered with books and pictures of animals, both ordinary and magical.

James was an average looking boy of ten, of middle height, and the athletic build of a boy who spent most of his time outside. The only notable features he had were the vivid green eyes, the mark of the Evans clan.

With his bathrobe tied, he stepped out of his room and into the hall, watching as the light in the hall rose just enough that he could see without disturbing anyone that might be in one of the rooms. He stepped across the hall and over to his twin's door. He opened it and stepped inside.

Rose's room was a mirror image of James', from the sporting goods to the model, except that her model was of a Muggle aircraft, and she didn't have a wall devoted to any one thing as James did. James walked over to her bed and reached out to touch her arm. As he touched her, Rose uttered a shriek and sat up suddenly.

James was so startled that he jumped back, tripping over his feet and landing on his rear. From the floor he looked up at Rose, his eyes wide. Rose's eyes were open, but she wasn't seeing anything from the blank orbs as she spoke. "The Patient Child has the doomed one's knowledge."

With that cryptic comment, Rose fell back and the feel of her mind in the back of James' head relaxed into more normal sleep patterns. James got up, watching his twin and touching her mind gently. When he was sure she was not falling into another nightmare, he went to her door and left the room.

In the hall he found their father. Robert Evans looked at James. "Another nightmare?" he asked quietly.

Jamees nodded. "Along with a strange comment," he said, just as quietly. He told his father what Rose had said. Robert closed his eyes for a second and then looked at James again. This time, he appeared to be examining James, as if he'd never truly looked at him, and the two looked at each other in silence for a minute.

Robert Evans was an older version of his son, six foot two inches tall, with the same build and green eyes. His hair was also black, falling to his collar in straight lines. That hair, like James and Rose's, was a gift of his Flatfoot mother. He told James to get back to bed as he ran his hand through his hair. "We're going to be busy tomorrow."

James considered him thoughtfully. "Are you finally going to tell us what is causing Rose's nightmares?"

His father nodded. "Along with a few more things, which I had hoped not to tell you for eight more years." Robert hugged James and turned back toward the bedroom he shared with his wife.

James watched him go and went back to his room, but sleep was long in returning.

In the master bedroom, Mary Evans waited for her husband of fifteen years. When Robert came back, she asked him what had happened.

Robert stopped, looking at the woman that had consented to marry him all those years ago, despite knowing what she was getting into. Mary Drake-Evans was a tall regal looking woman, just three inches shy of Robert's seventy-four inches, with a mass of brown hair that fell to her waist. Despite nearing her fourth decade and raising two children that pushed the limits of adventuring to the edge, there was no grey in her hair and her eyes were filled with love for her husband.

"What happened?" she asked again, breaking Robert out of his reverie.

He shook his head, returning to the problem at hand. "Rose had another nightmare, and James heard her say 'The Patient Child has the doomed one's knowledge.'"

Mary stared at Robert for a second and then dismay and fear filled her eyes. "Oh, Robert, what will we do?"

Robert sighed, running his hands through his hair again. "What can we do? We start looking for the rest of the Eight and alert the family." He kissed Mary softly and told her, "get some sleep, tomorrow is going to be busy."

Robert left the room and Mary turned out the light, but like her son, sleep evaded her.

Robert went into his study and sat in front of his computer. Booting the system up, he sent an email he'd prepared long ago and never wanted to send. After it was gone, he went to the owlery and sent off a dozen owls, all with the same message that had been on the email.

Returning to his office, he carefully dismounted a glass case from the wall and set it in in a holder next to his computer. He went to the bookshelf and took down a copy of 'Prophecies Throughout The Ages' and took it to his desk.

He opened a file on his computer and studied the parchment under the glass again. Two hours later, after checking and double checking he closed the book and the file with its new additions. He looked at the eight hundred year old parchment again, kept intact in an inert atmosphere in the glass. "Eight hundred years this has waited to come true. Why couldn't it have waited another eight hundred?" he asked the parchment rhetorically.

He crossed to the large picture window that made up one wall of his study, looking out over the Montana mountains his family loved. He was still there, lost in thought as the sun rose.

The peaceful serenity of the dawn was broken though, by the storm clouds gathering on the horizon.

_**OoOoOoO Tiffany, Emma and Hagrid, The Burrow, 30MAR2016. OoOoOoO**_

Emma laughed as she led the other two in the game of Broomstick follow the leader. The Broomsticks they rode wouldn't go very high, or very fast, but without adults around, they were the only Broomsticks they were allowed to use.

Ginny Weasley had gotten them, since she still remembered sneaking out to use the real Broomsticks her brothers had owned, and as a parent, the risks she'd taken then appalled her now.

With the limits of the Broomsticks, the leader in the game had to be more about skill than pure speed, as the Broomsticks were also spelled to stop if you were going to hit something. With those limits, the leader cut the finest corners they could, in an attempt to get the people following them to cut it a bit finer, which could end up with them stopping suddenly, as the spells on the Broomsticks decided they would hit whatever the obstacle was.

If the leader could stay in front for three laps around the orchard, they won. If someone else could pass them, they got to be the leader, and it was their turn to choose the path they followed.

Emma was on her third lap, and Hangeld, being twice the size of the other two, had just been stopped, as he tried to cut around the tree they were passing. That left him too far behind to catch her as they came in to the last leg of this lap, and now all she had to do was stay in front of Tiffany.

Tiffany was currently half a length behind her, but the trickiest portion of the lap was coming up. There were four trees growing close together here, two side by side, and two in a row after that.

The rider had to go between the first two, and then cut the other two, going to the left of one and the right of the other. It didn't matter which one you went left or right of and the two girls headed for the first two trees side by side.

The opening there wasn't large enough for both of them, and Emma rose a bit, seeking the higher road. Tiffany gained a bit on her, and was almost far enough in front to claim the lead, but Emma had a plan.

They went between the first two trees and Emma stayed high, ducking low on her Broomstick as she passed between two branches, one above her and one below on the right side of the tree.

She cur sharply on the other side, angling to go down and right at the same time, and missed Tiffany's head by mere centimetres as they rounded the tree.

Emma had picked up just a bit of room, and they were once again side by side as they came into the last forty metres. They crossed the finish line together, neither of them able to get an advantage in the short distance.

"I win!" crowed an exuberant Emma as Tiffany pulled up.

Tiffany smiled at her best friend. "This time you do," she said, "but I'll get you next time."

Hangeld came up in time to hear that comment. "Not if I start," he said with a smile. "Then I'll win."

The good natured bickering continued until they got close to the Burrow. Hangeld suddenly stopped, sniffing the air. The two girls looked at him and sniffed the air.

The three of them looked at each other. "Brownies!" they chorused, and the slow walk became a run for the back, one contest Hangeld won easily, with his much longer legs.

Talking Grandmother Weasley out of a few of the still warm brownies took several hugs and kisses, but soon enough, they were enjoying the chocolate goodness in the afternoon sun.

_**OoOoOoO Lisa Malfoy, Malfoy Manor, 30May2016. OoOoOoO**_

Draco stared at his offspring coldly. "Son, name the Malfoy place in the European Book of Gold."

Draco Jr. recited from memory. "The Malfoys are the fifth family in the European Book of Gold."

The Book of Gold recorded the fifty oldest Wizard family in a region, based on their Pureblood status, and money. For people who considered such things, it was the definition of the Wizard world. It was falling out of favor with most of the European Wizards, as well as the African Wizards, although the American and Asian Wizards had changed their books, to include social standing and reputation and removed the Pureblood status.

There was also a Book of Silver, which recorded the next one hundred families. Created during the times of arraigned marriages, they had been the final word on a good match for centuries. To marry within five places up or down of your place in the Book was a good match, while marrying under that was a bad match.

In the last hundred years or so, families had begun to ignore that, as the families had become so intertwined that incest was almost certain if you held to the Books. Very few families held to the Books for marriages anymore.

Those few that did, most notably the Malfoys, Crabbes, Goyles, Blacks and Parkinsons, did so because they were the conservatives among Wizards, and rarely changed their customs unless something forced them to.

The end of the recent Voldemort War had made some sweeping changes in the Books anyway. The Pendragon Clan was still on top, as they had not gotten involved in the war. Voldemort had not wanted to fight them until he had pacified the rest of the Wizards, and they had ignored the entire thing.

The Black family, with Sirius Black being the only surviving Black, and with him having been disowned, had fallen out of the Books entirely, as had the Crabbes, who were down to just one remaining couple, who had been in Asia during the war and had only returned to Europe after everyone else died or was sent to Azkaban after the war.

Several other formerly promiment families had fallen and several were rising. The Weasleys, with the changes in their fortunes that had come with the end of the war, had risen to the Book of Gold from the Book of Silver. The Potters, formerly ninth in the Book of Gold, had fallen to forty-third when James Potter married a Muggleborn, but Harry's marriage to Ginny Weasley had brought that back up to seventh.

Not that Harry or any of the Weasleys, Potters or Prewetts cared about the Books anymore.

Draco looked at Lisa. "Who are our betters in the World?"

"_Anybody who isn't a convicted Death Eater,_" is what Lisa thought, but years of pain and punishment kept even a hint of that from her face. "No Malfoy has admitted to having an better in two hundred years," is what she said.

Draco inclined his head, the only reward Lisa had ever gotten for parroting the racist and biassed crap Draco Sr. kept trying to indoctrinate his children with. The younger Draco was his father written a bit smaller. He truly believed in the things their father told them and Lisa couldn't do anything about it. Just once, she'd tried to show her brother the truth, and he'd informed their father.

The Cruciatus Curse was not an experience Lisa wanted to repeat, so she never tried that again.

After three hours of questions and answers about the Malfoy name, suitable companions and their place in the world, Draco Sr. let them go and Lisa went straight to the library, her only refuge in the Manor.

She checked the traps and wards around the books she had hidden in the secret wall opening, only to find that someone had opened it. She opened the hidden space and checked the parchment on top of her books. It had no traps on it and she picked it up and read it.

_Lisa,_

_I am proud of you for finding these, and being willing to use them. Share them with your brother._

_Draco Malfoy Sr._

Lisa closed her eyes. The books in this space, which everyone in the house knew about, were her cover in the library, and she had read them, but she would not be practising any of the Dark magic in them. They were here to be found, and to keep anyone from looking further.

After checking to make sure she wasn't being magically observed, she opened the bottom drawer of the desk. Touching the small knot in the wood at the back of the drawer opened the second drawer under the real one.

From that space, which only she knew about, Lisa took four books she knew no one had found yet, because she was still among the living. Three of them had been written by Hermione Granger-Weasley.

"Inside the Voldemort War, An Insider's Tale", the defining account of the Light side of the war had shown Lisa just what her family had done during the war.

"Magical Theory and Practices" was being hailed as one of the most complete books on how magic worked ever written. Lisa had learned a lot from the book, but most of it was too advanced for her experience.

She wasn't after either of those books though. "The Mental Arts, Magic Without a Wand." was the first book of its kind, and was required reading in more than twenty schools across the Wizard world. In it, Hermione Granger-Weasley gave step by step instructions on Animagus training, Occlumency, Legilimency, and the other magical arts that did not require a wand or a spell, such as Apparation. Supposedly, only an adult could buy this book, but in this, as with so many other things, you could find a way around that.

It also covered the talents that a Witch or Wizard had to be born with, such as Metamorphmagus, the Healing talent and others.

Lisa was learning everything she could from the book, although right now that was limited to Occlumency and Legilimency. The Animagus training required that a person have achieved puberty before they attempted it, and Apparation was hard to learn by yourself without accidents, and it wouldn't do her any good to Splinch herself.

She had already determined that she didn't have any of the inborn talents from the book. She turned to the chapters on the skills she could learn and practiced for an hour. When she was done, she put the book away and picked up the last book. She recorded her progress in the front and then turned to the back.

She read the section again and recorded one more bit of information. Draco Sr. was still involved in some dubious activities and Lisa was carefully recording everything she could find out about it.

She might need this information one day.

_**OoOoOoO Melissa, The Xavier Estate, 30MAY2016. OoOoOoO**_

"What spell would you use to move an unconscious patient?"

"Corporis tabula," Melissa said.

"Show me."

Melissa demonstrated the proper way to cast the spell.

"Tell me how you would check a person's vital signs."

"Perlego anima viscus."

"And without magic?"

Melissa showed the examiner how she would take a pulse, check breathing and determine other vital signs without using magic.

"How would you wake a patient?"

"Ennervate."

"If you found a body that was unresponsive, what you do?"

"Perlego cerebrum."

The examination went on for another hour, with Melissa demonstrating basic first aid techniques, both magical and Muggle. When the examination was over, Melissa was allowed to rest for a few minutes while her examiner recorded her scores.

Melissa was going over the test in her head when her parents and the tester came back. She looked at them and the joy her parents felt told her the result before the examiner could say anything.

"Congratulations, Miss Xavier, you have passed the first exam. You are a qualified MediHelper."

MediHelper was a position roughly equivalent to an emergency medical technician in the Muggle world. It was a bit more involved than that, but the status was the same.

Mitchell and Victoria Xavier smiled at their daughter. She was one of only thirty Xaviers that had managed to pass this test before they were twelve, although the Healer classes she had been given since she started school had helped immeasurably. It was still a feat to be proud of and they spent a few minutes letting Melissa know how proud they were.

Melissa basked under their praise, feeling the love and joy they felt. Being an Empath was occasionally hard, especially when people around her were in pain, but at times like this, she wouldn't trade it for anything.

_**OoOoOoO Adam, Buckingham Palace, 30MAY2016. OoOoOoO**_

Adam was sketching again, which was no surprise to anyone that knew him. Right at the moment, he was trying to capture the immovability and discipline of the guards outside the Palace. He smiled to himself. They made great models, with no worries about them moving around and ruining the pose.

"That's a great picture, son. Would you consider selling it?"

Adam looked up at the tourist that was looking over his shoulder. "I'm sorry, I was concentrating. What did you say?"

The woman, who was an American from her accent and clothes, repeated her question. Adam looked at the picture again. It didn't look quite right to him and he tried to explain that to the woman.

After a few minutes discussion while the woman looked through his sketch book, Adam was forty Pounds richer and missing two sketches.

He went back to sketching, putting a more medieval castle behind the guards, based on a castle he'd seen the year before, when his parents had taken him on a tour of the famous castles of Britain.

His parents came back with the fish and chips they'd gone to get while he sketched and Adam paused long enough to give the money to his mother and explain where it had come from. He smiled at her. "Does this make me a professional artist?"

His mother, who had gotten a write up in a local paper a few weeks before, smiled back. "A professional artist can support themselves with their art. Are you going to start living on your own?"

Adam grinned cheekily. "Hm," he said, pretending to think, "no more curfew, and ice cream whenever I want it."

Adam's parents teased him gently as they ate, and that night they went to the movies because Adam wanted to treat them to something. "After all," he said, hugging his mother, "you two gave me this talent, and it's only right that I share the rewards with you."

_**OoOoOoO The Guardians, Elsewhere, 30MAY2016. OoOoOoO**_

"_Your crimes are inexcusable and far beyond the pale._" The male voice was cold as he regarded Captain Wilhelm Göring.

The spirit so addressed tried to say something, but the male presence silenced him with a thought. _"You cannot say anything that will help you here. Your actions in life are the cause of hundreds of thousands of deaths and may destroy an entire race. The only thing you can do here is make me take longer destroying your being."_

"_No, Greeneyes, you will not. Do not be like the Patient Child. Either let him go or finish him now."_ The female presence's voice was neutral, neither condoning the other's actions or condemning them.

The male being seemed to ripple. _"Fine." _It turned its attention back to the lesser spirit before him. All three of them felt the power he gathered to himself and the spirit of the Patient Child's father quailed before the energy roiling before him.

The male spirit continued to gather energy until he blazed like a newborn sun. For a time that could have been an instant or a year he shone, and for that time the female presence merely watched.

Suddenly, the male presence released the energy, pushing the other spirit beyond the Veil no spirit bound to earth could pass. He watched it, pulsing with anger and relief. _"I could not do it,_" he said to the other spirit. _"I could not destroy that which should be inviolate."_

The other presence came and merged with him. _"I know. You are a good man."_

The male presence gleamed with an instant of humour. _"A man?"_ he repeated.

"_Yes,"_ said the other one. _"No matter your current form, your soul is that of a good man and it will always win."_

_**OoOoOoO The Evans, The Evans Mansion, 30MAY2016. OoOoOoO**_

Three quiet people were in the kitchen when Rose came in the morning after her nightmare. Mary was cooking breakfast while James and Robert sat quietly, content just to watch her until she needed help.

"Good morning, everyone," Rose said as she came in. "I had the weirdest dream last night."

The other three exchanged looks, and Rose saw them. "It wasn't a nightmare, just weird."

Robert looked at her. "Good morning," he said as he hugged her. "Why don't you tell us about it?" he added as she continued around the island in the center of the kitchen to hug her mother.

Rose finished hugging her mother and sat on one of the stools next to James. They turned, ended up back to back so they could lean on each other.

"It was a hall somewhere, not one I've ever seen, that I know of, but it seemed familiar, as if I had known it for years. There were lots of people there, but I could only see a few clearly." She paused, thinking. "James was sitting next to me, but he was older, like in his twenties and he had a streak of white hair over one eye."

Rose was thinking about the scene from her dream and missed the look Robert and Mary gave each other. "There was a girl next to him, about the same age and with a matching streak, but she had red hair. She also had the Evans eyes." Rose frowned. "I seemed to like her, and not like her at the same time. Next to me was a girl with black hair and really dark eyes. Her I liked a lot."

"Across the table from us was a huge boy, bigger than anyone I've ever met, sitting next to a red headed girl with brown eyes and a cheerful smile. Next to her was a brown haired boy talking to a pale blonde girl with light grey eyes. All of them seemed to be about sixteen or so, and then there was a weird shape next to the blonde girl, as if someone was there, but I couldn't see them."

Rose thought about it for a minute. "The shape would change every few seconds. One second it would seem younger than all of us, and then it would be older than anyone I've ever met, even Running Deer."

James looked up at that. "Running Deer is over a hundred years old, and the shape seemed older?" he asked.

"Yes, I had the strangest feeling, as if the shape was ancient, like a spirit guide."

James frowned as he considered the dream. Rose kept on talking. "I knew them all though, almost as well as I know James."

Robert and Mary exchanged another look and Robert turned to his daughter. "Can you describe the hall you were in?"

Rose nodded. "It was a long room, with four tables running the length of the hall and one set along one wall. The ceiling was the strangest thing. It was the sky, with a moon and some clouds."

Robert frowned as that description tickled an old memory. He got up and went down the hall toward the master bedroom.

Rose continued talking about the dream until her father returned. He handed her an old photo. "Is this the room you were in?"

Rose looked at the picture. "Yes! That's the room." she said excitedly, and James turned to look at the picture. "Where is it?"

She turned the picture over and read the caption on the back. "Hogwarts Great Hall," she said and looked at Robert. "Why do we have a picture of a British School?"

James grinned. "Dad's a closet Harry Potter fan, maybe?" he suggested with a grin.

Rose giggled as she waited for the answer.

Mary answered her. "Because one of your relatives went there. One of the British Evans, Lily Evans to be exact, and in her youth, she and your father corresponded."

Rose looked up, eyes gleaming. "Was she there when Harry Potter was there?"

Robert grinned at her. "Not exactly. Cousin Lily was Harry Potter's mother."

James and Rose exchanged startled looks. "We're related to the Potters?" James asked, surprised.

Robert shrugged. "Distantly. I think you're fifth or sixth cousins."

James and Rose looked at each other. "James, do you remember that paper?"

"I do, and I remember asking about famous relatives, but I don't recall hearing this then."

"I bet they have one of those adult reasons for not telling us this." Two nearly identical faces waited expectantly.

Robert grinned. "We didn't want you making a big deal about it."

"We were right," the younger Evans chorused.

Breakfast was a quiet meal, with everyone busy with his or her own thoughts. James and Rose were thinking about their famous relative, Robert was considering Rose's dream, and Mary was thinking of the danger about to engulf her children. The meal went quickly with everyone occupied, and when the dishes were done and left to dry, Robert gathered everyone in the office.

Robert passed James and Rose a printed copy of the parchment he had been caretaker of for more than a decade, and told them to read it. The twins sat, and pored over the short text. James looked up. "What does R-I-V-E-N mean?" he asked, spelling the word.

His mother answered him. "The word is riven, and it means torn apart."

Rose asked the only other question. "What does smote mean?"

"It means hit, dear," answered their mother.

When they were finished, the twins looked at each other, eyes full of the silent communication that they used in place of words. When they were done James turned to their parents. "It's creepy, but what does it have to do with us, or Rose's nightmares?"

Robert sat back in his chair, and began to speak. "That prophecy was written eight hundred years ago by one of our direct ancestors, and normally you would not have seen it until you graduated from the North American Wizard's Academy. Every Evans gets a copy then, and you would not have been any different except that it appears that the time of the prophecy is here now."

He paused, sighing heavily. "I'll run you through what we know, or think, about it line by line." He looked up at the ceiling, gathering his thoughts. "The first three lines refer to Harry Potter and the dark wizard Voldemort."

Mary quoted them,

"_**Wizard's darkest days coming, foreseen by the one that appears to prevail,**_

_**Four times nine are the years he shall try, his only fate to fail.**_

_**His defeat at the hands of the one marked by lightning,"**_

Here Mary paused. "That would be Harry Potter," said James. "But it wasn't 36 years, was it?"

Robert nodded. "If you count it from the first time he killed, yes, it was. The next two lines deal with the time that has passed since his defeat, and the birth of the enemy."

Once again, Mary quoted,

"_**Shall bring peace's joy, where most find nothing frightening,**_

_**Enjoy this era, for the Patient Child is born."**_

Rose looked troubled as those lines struck a chord in her mind. "I think I've dreamed of this child, and some books."

"You have, Rose, and will again," Mary said quietly, "but that comes later."

Robert took up the thread. "The next three lines describe the Patient Child, and they are disturbing, because nobody can really agree on what they mean."

"_**With the Doomed One's knowledge, the peace is torn.**_

_**Pity the Patient Child, unfit for the fire, not meant for the path given.**_

_**Fear the Patient Child, Healing Heart and Iron Hands riven."**_

"Doomed One's knowledge refers to the spell books of Voldemort, which are still missing despite having more than a hundred Aurors around the world looking for them full-time. Fearing this enemy seems natural, but the line about pity doesn't make sense to me," Robert said. "After all, we're not trying to destroy him, but him us."

"_**Three time seven years shall the peace hold,**_

_**Then time returns for the people bold."**_

"This is the time line before the next war starts, what the prophecy calls Wizard's darkest hour. Twenty-one years from the fall of Voldemort is the accepted answer, which means we have about eight to ten years."

Mary frowned. "I wish we had an extra twenty years, but this is what we have."

Robert reached out for his wife's hand. "The next two lines deal with the start of the War."

"_**Patient Child using means that few can know,**_

_**Strikes Wizard's world a devastating blow."**_

"These two lines are argued fiercely. Some of us think the Patient Child will use Muggle weapons. Few wizards know anything about Muggle weapons, and fewer could defend against them. Other people say he'll use new Unforgivable Curses." Mary gave a small smile. "Now for the Light. These lines tell us about the people that can save us."

"_**In this Darkest Hour, shall rise a new Force,**_

_**Eight who are One, setting their own course."**_

"Just eight people shall save the world. That will be a heavy burden on them." Mary said. "The next seven lines describe the Eight."

"_**Two born a world apart, yet Blood the least of bonds tight."**_

Robert frowned. "A Soul bonded couple is the generally accepted answer, which opens a whole can of worms of its own."

"Why is that, Dad?" asked James curiously, trying to remember anything he'd ever heard about Soul bonds.

"That's a long story, which we'll get into later. Suffice it to say, a Soul bond would put a very short time limit on us winning." Mary continued the dissection of the prophecy.

"_**The Seer, looking within for knowledge with other sight."**_

"That's Rose, isn't it?" said James. "That's what the dreams are, some form of Foresight."

"Yes, Rose has a gift we call the Evans Sight. I'll give you a book with all the information we have on the Sight, but that's still not a lot, simply because it's a rare gift," said their father to Rose.

"_**One only half human, saving where it will count."**_

"This line is about someone like Sheryl Penwall, whose mother was a Veela."

"_**The Fireheart, Bravery that danger cannot mount."**_

"A very brave person, but that's not a lot to go on." Robert commented wryly. "Although being too brave can be as dangerous as being a coward."

"_**The Observer, a Warrior's soul, with an Artist's eye."**_

"Again, this is not a lot to go on, without knowing who it's about. All it says is that he or she will be good tactically and have some artistic talent"

"_**Mental Wizard, even over Kin, no coin this honor can buy."**_

"Mental wizard means a very smart person, far brighter than anybody we know, added to a strong sense of honor. Not that this tells us much more than the last two lines. After ten years of looking at this, I hate prophecy."

Robert grinned. "It's worse than that book of brainteasers you got me." He sobered suddenly. "Not to mention, this has far more drastic consequences."

"_**The Rebel, Healing Hands with a heart that will not Lie."**_

Mary spoke for the first time in a while. "The rebel part is not clear, but healing hands and open heart most likely mean somebody with the healing gift, although that's even rarer than the Animagus talent. The next four lines are about the Eight as a group."

"_**On these Eight rests the Whole world's Fate.**_

_**Trust their Compassion; Teach them not to Hate,**_

_**With Honor, Trust and Love, they must be True.**_

_**Without them, the Patient Child wins past anything you can do."**_

"These lines also raise debate. A minority thinks this means everyone, Muggles included. I am one of them, and so is your mother. I think that if the enemy used Muggle weapons, He'd be familiar with the Muggle world, and might want to rule both worlds."

James and Rose stared at each other for a long minute, and then turned back to their parents. "It includes the Muggles, we think, or at least Rose has a hunch that way, and I have nothing to offer against it."

Mary looked at Rose. "Trust those hunches and feelings, Rose, it might be your gift trying to tell you something. The rest of this section is almost too easy," she added. "Honor, trust and love — without these we would be no better than the Patient Child or Voldemort."

Robert commented on the next few lines. "These two lines deal with how the Eight should be."

"_**Travails, Sorrow and Loss shall be their Fate,**_

_**Unless within each other they find Heart's Mate."**_

"This is the only line your father and I disagree on. I believe that it means the Eight will form four couples and he thinks it means the bonds of people who go to war together, which is a closer bond than blood many times."

Again, the silent conversation passed between the twins. "We disagree also. Rose agrees with Dad, and I agree with you, Mom."

"_**In all the ways of the world, train them well,**_

_**For with their Victory shall ring Peace's Bell."**_

"The biggest point of debate in the entire thing. Most of the Evans clan agrees with Uncle Alexander on this, that the Eight should be trained as wizards and in Muggle warfare. I hate to say it, but I agree. As much as I hate the violence of Muggles, if nothing else, using those tactics against unprepared wizards would give our side a major advantage."

"_**This warning we give, for those who will be,**_

_**Though most will ignore, and few will see."**_

Robert was grim as he spoke about this. "Since I started tracking the signs fourteen years ago, I've tried to built a network for when the war starts. In all that time, I've gotten less than 120 people, and most of them are family."

"_**Trust in yourselves, and aid the Eight,**_

_**Else the Whole World rues its Fate."**_

"Fairly simple instructions for everyone that believes in the prophecy. The last few lines are a warning to the Eight, and everyone that depends on them. Rose is one of the Eight, and we think you could be another, James, so you should both pay particular attention to the end of it."

"_**Of this last Verse, take serious note.**_

_**Should Death or Despair one of the Eight Smote,**_

_**Victory over the Patient Child will be hard to do,**_

_**Worse it will be, Never to win if the Eight lose two."**_

When Mary was done speaking the lines, there was a long silence. James and Rose were locked in another of their silent conversations, and their parents waited. Mary and Robert were very aware of the youth of their children, and this task would be a heavy weight at a time when they should be thinking of games and hobbies, rather than saving the world.

James looked at Rose. _"This is why we were chosen, isn't it? Rolling Thunder and White Owl knew something about this, and that's why they chose us to train, despite the fact that we wouldn't remain on the reservation to take their places."_

Rose sighed, happy to have this secret out. _"Yes. They knew that we were watched by too many Spirits not to be something unusual, and it was the only way they could help out."_

James nodded, making a leap of intuition. "_They told you because you respond better to logic, while I am the emotional part of our team." _He thought for a second. _"You could be persuaded, but I have to want it."_

Rose agreed with him and then looked at him. _"What will you do, James?"_

James looked back. _"What can I do? Let some evil Wizard destroy everyone and thing I love?"_

"_And if you knew your animals would be safe?"_

James frowned at Rose. _"Even if they were, there's you and our family, our clan and the Jenkins sisters, Mary and Denise."_ He looked at Rose again. _"I do love some people."_

Finally, they ended their silent talk and looked at their parents. James spoke quietly. "So what you trying to tell us is that in a few years we're going to be in the front of a war that will make anything that has gone before like a child's argument."

Robert nodded slowly. "Yes, that's just about it." The twins glanced at each other yet again, and turned back.

Something in their eyes was changing even as they spoke in tandem, becoming older. "What do we do now?"

Robert and Mary reached for them. Looking at each other over the heads of their children as they held them, they mourned the loss of childhood, and the innocence of youth.

Finally, the quick tapping of an owl's beak of the window drew them back, and James went to get the owl, passing the letter to his father as he fed and watered the bird. Robert set the message down and moved to his bookshelf, looking for a particular book. He drew down a slim volume, and handed it to Rose. "In that book are the personal records of every person to have the Evans Sight for almost 720 years."

He smiled whimsically. "All five of them. It's yours now, until you die when it will be saved for the next Seer of the Blood. I wish I could offer better training, but the Sight affects people in different ways. Dreams are just the first manifestation. It will mature, and change, becoming another type of sight. It has been a trance state, showing what will be, and an inner sight, allowing you to track the future actions of people by the choices they make, and only time will tell how you will see the future." Robert looked gravely at his daughter. "Foresight is a heavy burden for anyone, Rose, and you will need to be strong to bear this gift."

Robert was speaking quietly, but he was not surprised when his answer game from James, caring for another owl that had arrived while he spoke to Rose. "That's not quite right. We will need to be strong, because I will always be there for Rose."

James came over and handed the second message to his father. Robert skimmed the two messages and then checked his email. "I have a bit of business to clear up, and I should be getting the first of the answers to my owls of last night fairly quick, so I'm going to be busy for a couple of hours."

Mary came over and put her arms around his neck from behind. "Then I could take the children out of your hair for a while, and we could meet at the Final Port for lunch."

Rose looked up from the book. "Where's the Final Port?"

"In Tribune," answered Robert.

The twins jumped up, grinning widely. "Tribune? Really? You're so cool, Mom." They rushed out to get ready for a trip to North America's biggest wizard community.

Robert looked at Mary and pulled her into his lap. "What's in Tribune anyway?"

"It's time for new robes, and the grand opening of Weasley Wizard Wheezes is today, so I thought they'd enjoy that." Mary nuzzled his neck for a minute before continuing. "Plus, I thought I might take them by Constance's place."

Robert pulled back far enough to look in his wife's eyes. "Going to have James tested for the Healing gift?"

"Yes, I am. We need to know if he's one of the Eight, and which one he is," said Mary.

"He may be one of the Soul bonded, and there's no way to test for that."

Mary looked worried. "I know, and I would rather he was not part of the Prophecy than one of them."

"Mary," began Robert, but she interrupted him.

"Don't you 'Mary' me, Robert Evans. You know the facts of Bonds as well as I do. Even if he and the other one get past the input, and the frenzy, you and I both know no Soul bonded couple has lived more than fifteen years past the bonding. If he bonds in his first year of school, he won't live to see his 27th birthday, and I do not want to outlive any of our children."

"Mary, listen to me. Right now he could be any of them, or he and Rose could be the first line."

It was Mary's turn to pull back and look at her husband. "Rose's dream has me thinking. If, as Rose's dream suggests, they attend Hogwarts, we might have been wrong about Rose being the Seer. There are at least three large families in Europe than have far more Seers than the Evans do, including the Clearwaters, where we got our Sight in the first place."

Robert stopped and thought about his new idea carefully, seeking logic flaws. "Follow my thinking here. The prophecy was given in England 800 years ago, and modern America and medieval England are worlds apart. Plus they have the tightest twin link I've ever even heard of, and they share so many gifts, that being brother and sister is the least of their bonds."

"What about the Seer, Robert?"

"Like I said, there are at least three families in Europe that are known for the Gift of Sight, and any of them could have the child who will be the Seer. In fact, the Evans Sight did not show up until Elric Evans and Cassandra Clearwater bonded and married, and the Sight only shows up in their descendants. None of the rest of the Evans clan has it, not even the ones descended from Elric's brothers."

"Elric Evans? He spoke the Prophecy, though. How could it be from Cassandra's blood?"

"Legend has it that Elric lived for a day or so after Cassandra died, still the only Soul bonded to have done so. According to the letter that came with the Prophecy, the Mediwizard in charge of his case found that they were sharing the bond, with Cassandra's spirit actually in Elric's body. So technically, I suppose she spoke the prophecy."

Mary considered this thought. "So even though Rose has the Sight, she might not be the Seer?"

"Maybe." Robert grinned at his wife. "If she is the Seer though, I plan to ask for nice clear prophecies, with names, dates, and no ambiguities."

"Sure, Dad, just like a computer, right?" Rose's eyes were alight with humor as she and James came back into the room.

Robert pretended to wince, as he looked over Mary's shoulder at his children. "Are you ever going to let me forget that?"

James smirked as he and Rose slipped into the back and forth speech that drove most people crazy.

"Well, it was"

"a nice clear"

"prediction, I"

"suppose, even if"

"it did predict"

"good sales on heating"

"charms because of snow"

"in July."

"Hey, I've already admitted trying to use a computer to run a wizard business was not my best idea, OK?" Robert kissed Mary again, and set her on her feet. He rose from the chair and hugged the twins as he spoke again. "Now that you've reminded me, go help your Mother spend money while I work, and I'll meet you in Tribune later." He looked at Mary speculatively. "Are you going to Portkey to Tribune?"

"Yes, why?" Mary asked, looking at Robert curiously.

Robert smiled. "No reason, I just thought the kids could use my key to return, and you and I could have a Family Business Meeting in the apartment later."

Mary smiled back, even as she blushed. Throwing a quick look at the twins, she spoke softly. "Who's going to be here with them?"

"Alexander will be here by noon." Mary kissed Robert good-bye, and gathered Rose and James, pulling a large, old-fashioned skeleton key from her robes. They all took hold, and disappeared.

Robert stared at the wall for several minutes, and then sat down again. He pulled a scroll and a quill from his desk, and began a long letter to Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

_**OoOoOoO The Author, Here and Now. OoOoOoO**_

_A goodly portion of this is from chapter one of Prophecy, but some of it has been expanded, and other bits added, so there is something new even for those of you that have read Prophecy. At this point, you might want to read 'Elric's Story; Prelude to Prophecy', as it will not change. Of Links and Laws, Calculated Risk and Mary's Story all reveal more about the Evans family, centering mostly on James and Rose._

_Interlude will change drastically, so you might want to wait for the new version, which tells the story of the war from the Patient Child's view._

_For those of you wondering why I went with the cliché of Americans in Hogwarts, the answer is simple. I wanted to have an alternate form of magic for some of the things they are going to do, and being part Flathead, I know the ways of my people best. I have changed enough details that you should not take this as a primer in Indian magic, however. _

_Also, using people from many countries and cultures allowed me to teach my cousins (the people I told this tale to in the first place) that there is no one true way, that everyone comes to their own way, according to their nature and culture._

_Coming Soon: MM&WS chapter five, followed by BoB chapter six. Or is it SOG's turn? Anyway, those are the three things I'm currently working on._

_Raven_


	4. Rising Winds

_**The Prophecy of Eight**_

_**Chapter Four**_

_**Rising Winds**_

_**OoOoOoO James and Rose, Tribune, 30MAY2016. OoOoOoO**_

The trio appeared in the living room of a nice apartment. Neither of the twins had been in their mother's old place before, and they took a minute to look around. That their mother had decorated the apartment was obvious to the twins. It was done in a comfortable homey style, with one exception. In a corner of the living room was an old black chair that had seen better days, and better decades. Rose looked at the decrepit and battered chair, which didn't even come close to matching anything else in the room, then at her mother. "What's with the chair?" she asked, looking at it again.

Mary followed her gaze, and smiled. Her eyes were far away, as she answered absently. "Before I married your father, I was not the richest woman, and that was part of the furniture I had then."

James and Rose looked at their mother, and back at the chair. They sensed an evasion, and James continued the questioning. "I believe what Rose means, is why is it still here? You've got enough furniture to get rid of it, and it is kind of beat up."

"Brother mine, that chair passed 'kind of beat up' before we were born."

Mary smiled again as she answered them. "When your father and I were dating, we spent a great many hours curled up in that chair, reading and cuddling. It's still his favorite chair."

James was looking at the clock, not really interested in old romantic stuff. "If we're going to get any shopping done before the opening of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, we have to go, Mom."

Mary grinned at her son. "How did you know about that?"

"Please, it's only been in the paper for a month, and we were going to ask to be here, but then Rose started with the nightmares and that was more important."

"Then we should be going." Mary led them out on to the street. This part of Tribune was mostly little stores, with apartments above them and about five blocks long. Under Mary's apartment was a bakery, and she felt a wave of nostalgia as she recalled many mornings sitting in front of the bakery discussing everything and anything with her friends, one of whom had introduced her to a tall green-eyed man some eighteen years ago. "We have to stop in the bakery for a minute."

Inside the bakery, Mary grinned at the twins and motioned them to silence. When she spoke, her voice had the tone of an old money snob. "Goodman, something low fat and without sugar." James and Rose watched the proprietor to see what he'd do. At first, it seemed that he had not heard her, and then they saw the red flush crawling up his neck. Without turning around from the tray of pastries he was working on, he placed a rock on the counter.

"That's the only thing in this store without sugar, Lady, and low fat too." He voice was low and raspy; as if he was growling the words he spoke.

When their mother spoke again, her voice was back to normal, and filled with affection and mirth. "Really, Kevil, are you ever going to make anything that doesn't make me fat?" At her first words, Kevil had stiffened, and by the time she finished, he had turned and was grinning an impossibly large grin.

"Penny child." He tried to look stern but the effect was ruined by the smile on his face. "So. You leave me for years, and come waltzing back in, probably wanting credit, and expect me to be happy about it?"

Mary's attempt to look pathetic was ruined for the same reason Kevil's stern act had been. "Well, I am just a little short this week." The baker reached out with an arm that looked as though it would reach the front door from where he stood, and dragged Mary into a hug.

James and Rose were examining him with interest. Kevil was only about five foot six inches tall, but he was nearly as wide as he was tall, and from what the twins could see, the rock was not the only low fat thing in the store. His face was broad and looked as if it had been carved from the rock on the counter. Mary was trying to return his hug, but where his arms were wrapped around her almost twice, Mary's arms wouldn't even touch behind him. Releasing her, the shopkeeper looked at the twins. "No need to ask who these two are, not with your face and those eyes."

"Kevil, this is James and Rose."

"How do you do, Sir?" two voices spoke as one.

Kevil looked around. "Sir? Who is this Sir? My name is Kevil."

Mary spoke again. "Kevil, I want my usual, and kids, what do you want?" While the twins inspected the myriad goods on display, Mary leaned close to Kevil. "Did you get Robert's owl?"

"Yes, and my response is on its way back." He examined the twins as thoroughly as they had done him earlier. "Are we sure about this?"

"Yes." Mary's answer was short and Kevil looked sharply at her, but let it pass for now.

"Which are they? The Seer and who?"

"Right this minute we're not even sure of the Seer." Mary looked sideways at him. "Is Constance still in the same shop?"

Kevil appraised her. "Testing for the healing gift?"

"Yes, and despite what you think of her, she's the best healer in the country." Kevil blushed suddenly, and muttered something Mary didn't quite catch. "What did you say?"

"I said she's not that bad." Kevil was avoiding her eyes, and his face was even redder than when she had been teasing him.

Mary stared at him, taking in the blushing and the way he was avoiding her eyes. Her jaw dropped and her eyes went round with astonishment. "Kevil? You and Constance? Or does she know?"

A new voice entered the conversation. "Does Constance know her fiancé is head to head with some man-stealing actress, you mean?" Two sets of blazing green eyes examined the short heavyset woman that had entered the store unnoticed. A split second of mutual thought, and James and Rose joined the three adults at the counter, with James passing close to the middle aged blonde woman, and Rose moving up closer to Kevil and Mary. The whole thing was done in less than ten seconds and they looked at their mother, who was laughing?

Mary was completely dumbfounded. "Excuse me," she finally got out through the giggles, "but weren't you the two that were asked to moved your shops at least five blocks apart, so you wouldn't argue in the streets anymore?"

Kevil's blush was deepening, but Constance brushed the comment aside. "That was in our younger days." She grinned, shooting Kevil a wicked look. "Since then we've found better things to spend our passions on." Kevil closed his eyes, and his face got even redder. He mumbled something about baking to check on, and fled into the rear of the shop. As the two women embraced and began talking about friends, the twins were regretting their sudden actions of a few minutes prior. Silently they decided to confess, and James moved up next to their mother. The two women looked at them.

"So these are your twins?" Constance said, and James and Rose were introduced again.

"Um, Mom, we've got something to tell you." James muttered.

Mary raised one eyebrow as she recognized his embarrassment. "What is it, James?"

James spoke in a rush. "Well, when she made that actress comment, Rose and I were upset and might have acted a bit hastily."

Mary figured out what he meant quickly. "Which one did you use?"

James grinned a bit sheepishly. "Actually, it's a new one Rose and I have been working on."

Constance was following the exchange and broke in. "Whatever are you talking about? Am I going to blow up or something?" She looked down at herself. "That would make an awful mess, you know."

Mary smiled at her. "No, the twins' pranks are more annoying than painful." She looked at James and Rose again. "So what exactly is going to happen?"

James grinned, and began explaining with the pride of an inventor. "It's an adaptation of the '_Speculum dorsum_' spell that people use to see their own backs. I put an activator disk on Constance, and Rose put the other half on Kevil. The next time Kevil comes close to you, your image will be cast over him, and all you will see is you, as if you were looking in a mirror."

Constance thought about that. "That might be surprising the first time, but not really funny."

James grinned, and his eyes were alight with a twisted humor. "Well, we thought so also, so it has one more little twist. You are the only one that will see it. Imagine trying to explain to people that Kevil looks like you when none of them can see it, and casting a _Finite Incantatem_ won't work either because the spell itself is not on the person, but on yourself."

Constance thought about that. "That could drive somebody crazy. I like it. Do you have another you can place on Kevil?" James grinned, and brought out a small pouch. Reaching inside, he pulled out a handful of small wooden disks about half an inch wide. Each disk was marked with a green rose on one side and various other markings on the other side. Checking the markings, he held up a disk.

Mary grinned at Constance. "I always told you your mouth would get you in trouble."

Constance was unrepentant. "What can I say? I was not expecting bodyguards at Kevil's shop, and certainly not from my friends."

Mary looked at her sharply. "How did you know I'd be here anyway? I only decided to come this morning."

Her friend merely rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid, youngster. Robert sent the alert out, and from our correspondence of the last three years, figuring out you'd be bringing the kids to me for testing was a no brainer, and I don't think you can come within a hundred miles and not stop in here. Although two years is far too long between visits."

Mary nodded. "I think so. I mean, you and Kevil? I thought you and Johann were an item."

Constance made a face, as if something tasted bad. "That peacock fell for a dancer from the Floating Platform." As the two women sat at a table chatting about old friends and places, James and Rose moved to a table at the front of the store to watch the people passing by.

Kevil came back out, and took care of some customers that had come in. Seeing the women talking, he took them a tray of drinks and pastries, and brought another to the twins. He smiled at them. "Those two will be at least an hour, you might as well enjoy the wait." Rose thanked him for the tray, and the twins began eating as they used their nonverbal speech to talk. They finished deciding on a name for the new prank, and their talk turned to the prophecy. As they discussed it, the hot chocolate and pastries were forgotten, and Rose pulled her copy from her robes. Setting it on the table, they began going over it again, one line at a time.

Mary and Constance were watching them. "Will you test them for the gift?"

Constance just looked at her. "I don't have to, Penny, even you should be able to see they don't have even a touch of it just by looking at their aura."

Mary grimaced. "Auras never were my strongest point and I haven't even looked at one in ten years, I might have missed it."

Constance watched the flow of emotions over Mary's face and spoke sympathetically. "Mary, don't let your fears as a mother inhibit them. This is going to be hard enough on them without you holding them back."

"I know that, but it's so hard."

"I know. I lost my only child in the Voldemort war." Constance's eyes were far away and misty as she remembered a laughing boy, and the box he came home in for the last time. "No matter how we feel, if we do anything but support them, we will lose even more. Jeremy was my son, but more importantly, he was my friend. Being friends with your grown children is a large honor, and I can say he was mine."

Constance turned bitter for a minute. "Not that you could help them anyway, this war will be for the young. Swords and ducking spells are not for older people like us."

"Bullets either." Mary said grimly.

The older wizard was skeptical. "I still don't think that will work, most of the wizarding world is charmed to prevent those kinds of things from working."

Mary took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "That's just it. Robert and I have been testing those wards, and if you fire a bullet from outside, it will still hit its target. Plus," Mary lowered her voice even further. "Robert found an old charm that allows Muggle things to pass the wards."

Constance stared at her in shock. "How hard is it, and how many people know about it?"

"Not hard at all, and the basic theory is in at least two old books that are uncommon, but not rare," said Mary quietly.

"Any more good news for me?" asked Constance wryly.

"No, I think that covers it." Mary looked at her watch, and told Constance they had to be going. She stood up, and Rose caught the motion. Both of them looked at her and she inclined her head towards the door.

Kevil came over to say good-bye, and as he did, the disk that Rose had stuck to his sleeve put his image over Constance. Kevil jumped, and stared at her. Mary had to shake his arm to drag his attention to her.

They said their good-byes, and Mary had a request. "Kevil, you made a dinner for me a long time ago, that first dinner for two."

Kevil smiled. "I remember it, and as I recall, it was followed by the first breakfast for two."

Mary blushed and slapped his arm. "Your memory is entirely too good, but if you could deliver that dinner again, around seven?"

"For you Penny-child, I will do it." Kevil looked at her severely. "Although, if it takes you two years to come back and see us, we won't invite you to the wedding."

Mary grinned. "Oh, the horror, how could I miss that? Robert is never going to believe it unless we're there."

Constance was looking at Mary with an impish gleam in her eyes. "Mary, you're quite red over a dinner, you wouldn't be CKTing tonight would you?"

Mary turned a darker shade of red at the verbal slang they had used years ago for cuddling, kissing and touching. "Not exactly, Robert and I are just going to have a Family Business Meeting."

Constance smirked. "I remember that one."

As they talked, Constance caught Kevil staring at her again. She knew why he was staring, but pretended to be annoyed. "Kevil, what is your problem? We're saying good-bye, not dancing nude in the streets." Kevil mumbled something as the Evans left, and their last sight of the two was a confused Kevil trying to explain what he was seeing to a seemingly unbelieving Constance.

As they headed for the street where all the larger shops were, James asked Mary, "Neither of us have the Healing talent, do we Mom?"

Mary walked on a few steps before replying. "No, and that's all we say in public."

James tried to say something else, but Mary cut him off. "Not another word." James blinked at the firm tone and left it alone for now.

As they walked down the street, passing shops that sold everything from potions supplies to used books and even Muggle artifacts, James asked, "Mom, why do Kevil and Constance call you Penny?"

Mary was silent for a few minutes, and her eyes were far away. She shook her head and answered him quietly. "That's a long story, James, and this is not the time to go into it. I will tell you all about it soon, though."

James and Rose looked at each other, putting together a few facts and many guesses. "When you do, will it explain why we've never met any of your family, Mom?" Rose asked.

Mary looked at the twins sharply, and smiled wryly. "Yes, it will. But that too is a subject better left for home." At the next corner, they turned on to the main street of Tribune. Here there were no apartments, only the biggest businesses in the wizard world. Gringotts had a branch here, as well as Binklestocks, the bookstore that had a copy of every book ever written, and would make you a copy, if you had the money. As they came to Gringotts, Mary told the kids she had to stop in.

James grinned. "That's good, Rose and I have some business with them also."

Mary smiled at them. "Going to try to beat your father?"

"Not yet, but this is too good an opportunity to pass up, and Dad helped us with the strategy. We should be able to work something out, and if we do, we'll need that vault."

Mary shook her head. "My budding tycoons. I feel sorry for everyone that has to deal with you when you two are running Cumulus."

Cumulus was the name of the Evans family businesses, and it had many fingers stretching into all lifestyles, and even holdings in the Muggle world. While the Evans holdings were not as large as the Pendragon fortune, or the Merlin family money, they were listed among the top ten richest families in the wizard world.

James had been doing some quiet research, and suspected that if anyone but Robert actually knew everything Cumulus was into, they might be ranker higher than they were. In Gringotts, Mary went to the Evans vault while the twins opened an account in the name of the Green Flower business. By the time Mary returned, they were done, and they set off for the opening of the first North American branch of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

Along the way, the younger Evans were busy refining their plan to attract the attention of Fred and George Weasley. As they approached the crowd gathering, the twins were picking out targets for their disks. Rose turned to James. "Which one?"

James grinned. "Rainbow Friends. I'll get the wizard in the green and lilac robes."

"I'll get the witch in yellow over there, and meet you in front of the stage." The two split up, worming through the crowds as only young children can do, making sure to pass within arm's reach of their chosen victims. In front of the stage, their watched as Fred (Or maybe George) put the final changes on several displays. The other Weasley twin came out of the store, and joined his brother. George and Fred had remained youthful, with only a few lines and a sprinkling of gray hair to show the passing years.

George was looking over the crowd estimating how many were gawking and how many would buy when two small heads caught his eye. Something about them was familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on what, and he was about to say something to Fred when the boy looked up at the stage. The green eyes brought back a memory twenty years old, then the other head turned his way, and he got another shock. "Fred, look at this. Those two kids there by the Ginny Gems table."

Fred looked, and swore softly. "That looks like Harry that first year."

"Almost, but his hair was never that neat. Now, put red hair on the girl, and think about Harry's picture album."

Fred squinted at them again. "Looks a lot like what I remember of Lily, from the early pictures Hagrid gave him."

"I thought so too. I wonder if we'll get a chance to talk to them."

"I don't know about talking to them, but right now it's time to open." The two had the opening down to an art after opening a dozen branches in Europe, and as Fred gave a short humorous speech, George threw various small pranks into the group of children standing near the stage. As Fred finished his speech, there was a commotion in the back of the crowd.

From their vantage point on the stage, Fred and George looked out, and quickly spotted the problem. A number of wizards and witches standing there had suddenly turned colors. Not just any colors, but loud screaming neon colors not found in nature. Electric blues clashed with screaming yellows. After a few seconds, the colors switched places, jumping from person to person in a circle.

From their higher viewpoint, the Weasleys could see the circles were centered on two people, and they looked at each other. Fred was chuckling softly. "Not a bad prank, although it could use a few touches." As they watched the show, they didn't notice the sable haired pair they had seen earlier approaching the stage.

George grinned as the show ended. "That would be a good addition to our product line."

A young voice from the front of the stage spoke. "That sounds like our cue."

Fred and George looked down to see the two people they had been discussing earlier. "You see, my sister and I invented the Rainbow Friends." Fred and George looked at each other.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Fred murmured rhetorically.

After they finished talking to the Weasleys, James and Rose went looking for their mother, and found her just outside the store, talking to an older wizard. They slowed as they came close, noting two things. Judging by the cut and material of his robes, the haughty wizard was very well off at least, but far more important to the twins, their mother was quietly furious with him. They moved up on each side of her staring at the older man.

Mary was speaking in a tightly controlled voice. "No. You don't understand. Twenty years ago, he lost the right to order me around. I made an attempt at peace fifteen years ago, and again ten years ago and was snubbed both times. So you just run on back to the Patriarch and tell him that if he wants to talk to Robert and I, he can damn well come to us."

James and Rose blinked as they heard their mother swear for the first time. Mary put an arm around her children. "Now, if you will excuse us, _my children_ and I have things to do." Something in the way she stressed the words 'my children' made the older man flinch.

As they started to turn away, he spoke again. "Don't you dare turn your back on me Marilyn P"

Mary twisted, cutting his sentence off as if she had used a knife. "Are you stupid, or merely so arrogant that a new thought can't penetrate your skull? My name is Mary Evans. I neither acknowledge nor answer to anything else."

As the silver haired wizard started to lose his regal bearing, James and Rose took a hand in the situation. They moved up next to him, and each of them gripped the sleeves of his robes, pulling him down to where they could speak quietly in his ear.

They used the back and forth speech that always made people stop and listen to them to be sure they heard correctly. "Sir, we don't know you--"

"But you're annoying our mother--"

"And we don't like that."

"So unless you want us to cause--"

"A very messy and very public--"

"Spectacle in the street--"

"You'll leave right now." They let him go and moved back to stand next to their mother, pulling a handful of disks from their pockets as they did so. The older wizard stared at them, flushing an angry red.

He looked around, at the people watching them, and spoke again, quietly. "You have not heard the end of this, Marilyn Elizabeth Pendragon."

With that parting comment, he Disapparated away, leaving the twins in shock. Mom was a Pendragon? The Pendragons were the oldest and largest family in the wizard world with the sole exception of the Merlins, and the two families had intermarried so many times over the years that they were practically one family.

They put the disks away, deep in the silent link they shared. Mary sighed, looking at them. "I think we'll be having that talk a little sooner than I had planned on." She took a deep breath, pushing her anger down as she started walking again. The twins trailed after, and after a few steps, began giggling. Mary looked at them, instantly recognizing the signs. "What did you do to him?"

Rose spoke first. "When we had his sleeves, I planted a _'Dirty Face'_ on his robes."

James attempted to look innocent, although the mischief in his eyes ruined the act. "It should go well with the _'Tattered Robes'_ one I planted on him." Mary burst out laughing at the thought of the regal wizard looking like a beggar.

When she stopped, she looked sideways at her children. "You do know that was the Merlin don't you? Senior member of the Merlin clan?" James and Rose lit up, and stopped. James pulled a small notebook from his robes and wrote something down.

He grinned at Rose. "That leaves just six more to go." Mary raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

Answering the unspoken question, Rose smiled at their mother. "We're trying to prank at least one member of every family in the North American Book of Gold before we go to school in the fall."

James was checking the book again. "We've got just six families left, and then possibly five more, where the person we pranked was only married into the family."

Mary shook her head. "The Book of Gold? You aim high, don't you?" The Book of Gold was a list of the fifty oldest and biggest wizard families in North America, and held such families as the Pendragon, Merlin, Penwall and more. The Evans family was listed third in the Book of Gold. Only the Pendragon and Merlin families were higher.

"You know what dad says, 'Always reach as high as you can,'" James and Rose chorused, "'you may not succeed, but you'll get somewhere at least.'"

As they reached a tailor's shop and Mary stopped to go in she smiled at her children again. "I believe he was talking about business when he said that."

The twins turned identical innocent looks on her. "But, Mom, pranks are our business." Mary laughed, and warned the twins that these people were old friends, and not to prank them. Flushing at the reminder of their misguided prank on Constance earlier, they agreed.

Inside the shop, Mary led them towards the back, waving at some of the people working. The smell of fabrics filled the air, and there were a goodly number of people being fitted for robes. In the back of the store, an old man was sewing a robe, and murmuring quietly while he did. James and Rose caught the flash of magic around his fingers and the needle as he sewed and looked at each other. Mary spoke to him, using the same pathetic tone she had tried to use on Kevil earlier. "Pardon me, but do you have a job for me?"

The old wizard's fingers kept sewing even as he looked up at Mary, smiling broadly. "For you? No, I don't think so. Last time I gave you a job, you were here barely three years, and you left to get married. Now you have children. Come see me when they're grown and gone."

Mary sighed theatrically. "Then who should I see about fittings?" she asked. The tailor looked at the twins, and sobered.

Without taking his eyes from them, he questioned Mary. "I suppose you'll be wanting the special robes?"

Mary was just as sober. "Of course. I could have gotten regular robes anywhere, and not come halfway across the country for them."

The old man nodded, finished with his inspection of the twins. "See Ronald then, and tell him what you want." Mary touched the elderly tailor, and thanked him. The affection was back as he shooed them off. "Go, child, you're interfering with my profit margin."

Mary was smiling, remembering her years of working in this shop, before she married Robert. She found Ronald, and they exchanged hugs before he started measuring the twins. As he worked, he and Mary kept up a constant stream of talk about people they knew. When the twins were done they moved to the front of the shop to watch the street as Mary was measured for robes.

After they were done, and the robes paid for, they headed to the Final Port to meet their father for lunch. Along the way, Mary cautioned them about the Inn. "Kids, this is a strange place, but two things will never change about it. Everyone in there is a good person, no matter what they look like, and you'll always be safe there." Despite their attempts, that was all Mary would say. By the time they reached the entrance, the twins were wildly curious.

The entrance to the Final Port was in an alley, and was a simple door, with no sign or anything to show what was inside. When Mary knocked on the door, a man opened it. It was possible that he was a short giant because the man that opened the door had to duck to stick his head out, and his shoulders were every bit as wide as the door. James was certain he could have taken the door's place quite easily. He looked at them, greeted Mary and then looked at the twins. For one brief second, they felt something, as if his eyes looked under their skin into their very souls. Eyes wide, they stared at him until he nodded slowly and moved aside to let them in.

Inside the door, James and Rose looked around, slightly disappointed. After the cryptic comments their mother had given, they were expecting a dim smoky hole in the wall, with strange beings and sneaky bearings. What they saw was a well lit and clean Inn with about fifteen tables, most of which had normal looking people at them.

Robert waved at them from one of the tables, and they joined him. Chatter about their morning took them through lunch, which was a savory stew with warm bread sticks and a tart cranberry juice to wash it down. Robert nearly choked on a bread stick when he heard they'd pranked the Merlin. "Pompous fool needs it," was all he would say about it, although there was an undercurrent of anger in his voice when he spoke of the Merlin.

As they were eating the strawberry pie that was dessert, James frowned. He had just seen a wizard appear from one of the three booths he could see from his seat. He caught Rose's eye and they spoke silently. Watching the booths, they soon realized there was some sort of spell on them. When a person went into the booth, you could not see them until they left it again. When James said something to his father about it, Robert just shrugged. "Not all of the clients want to be seen," was all he would say and then he changed the subject.

After lunch, they spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering through the smaller shops, looking at rare things, and many strange things. Robert bought Mary a magic back scratcher that sent the twins to whispering together. Their parents just shook their heads, knowing that a new prank was being born, based on the back scratcher somehow.

In a bookstore, James found a nearly unread copy of a book and bought it for Rose; telling her that if she was going to dream about it, she could read about it too. Rose looked at the cover. "'Hogwarts, a History'" she read, and flipped to the index. "Look at this, Lily and Harry Potter are mentioned in here." Mary and Robert had to drag them away from the book at that point.

The twins found a Muggle thing, and bought it after playing with it for a few minutes. They gave it to their father, saying it could replace his computer. After looking at the 'Magic eight ball' Robert laughed, and agreed it would work just as well for wizard business.

After a while, Mary gave the twins the Portkey, and they said good-bye, with hugs all around. As the twins Portkeyed home, Mary and Robert smiled at each other, and headed for Mary's old apartment, unaware of the bright red hearts on their backs, which read "We're in Love" every time they touched. Back at the house, James and Rose pulled out the little book and made a notation. "That gives us a Pendragon by birth, and an Evans."

The voice that came from the shadows was low, and very menacing. "And two dead children who don't pay attention to what's around them."

James and Rose jumped, spinning to face the large man in the corner of the room before the voice registered. They relaxed, and Rose was the first to speak. "Why the scare tactics, Uncle Alexander?"

Uncle Alexander Evans was a near copy of his younger brother Robert, but he had the muscles of a man that did hard physical activity for a living, and the ramrod straight posture that said military to anyone that knew.

As the oldest brother, Alexander would be the head of the Evans Clan, but Alexander was a squib. Born without any magical talent at all, he had gone on to an exemplary career in the American Muggle Army, and had long advocated closer ties between the two worlds. After his retirement from the army a couple of years back, he had opened a bookstore in Billings Montana that catered to both worlds.

"Robert has brought me up to date. That means that in a few years, you two are going to be front line troops in a war. Learning a little simple caution won't hurt you a bit." He grinned suddenly. "Or at least not much." Alexander swept the two into a hug. "I assume your father has gone over the prophecy with you, but I am going to lay a different view on it on you." Alexander smiled again. "I love Robert, but once he gets an idea in his head, it take a large stick to dislodge it. For example, he thinks we have eight or nine years before the war begins, and I disagree. I think we have less." James and Rose stared at him.

"How much less, and why?" asked James.

"Four or five years less. I think the Peace era began when we started pushing Voldemort back, and he was no longer attacking. After all, that is when most people 'Saw nothing frightening'." Recognizing the quote from the prophecy, James and Rose pulled their copies out and began looking at them again.

As they were sitting down, James made a small protest. "Wait a minute, if the war is going to start that soon, where are the Eight?"

"Read it again. It says they rise in the darkest hour, after the Patient Child strikes the first blow." As they began going over the Prophecy again, their uncle took a minute to look around the room.

The large fireplace was the focal point of the room with a large sectional and several easy chairs angled so that everyone could see each other and the fireplace. A number of lamps and lanterns were scattered around, and the room could be made ready to entertain Muggles or wizards in a very few minutes.

Alexander moved over with the twins and once again they went over the prophecy line by line, but this time, their uncle offered them all the different ways to interpret it. Long into the night, they spoke, with Uncle Alexander giving them advice and telling them where they were going from here.

The next morning he began showing them exercises to strengthen both mind and body. Books by authors from both worlds on strategy and tactics came out and he advised them to read them carefully. "Two things are more useful than anything else when you're preparing to fight. The first is discipline. I can't make you do the exercise, and I can't make you study those books, you have to do it on your own. That is called self-discipline, and it is the first step to victory. Proper preparation is the next most important thing. Know your equipment, know yourself, and what you can do with what you have, and the battle is half over before it starts." Alexander paused and looked at James. "You are going to have to control that temper too."

James started to say something, and his uncle just stared at him. "I was at the Junior Quidditch finals, remember? I know very well that you inherited your temper from your mother, and you cannot lose that temper in a fight. In fact, you cannot even lose that temper after you've been training for any amount of time. I am going to teach you to fight with your hands, a discipline called Aikido. If you use that on somebody in a temper, you can kill them." James and Rose looked at him wide-eyed. He raised an eyebrow, and spoke gently. "I know you're young to hear that, but if this war goes down the worst case path, and I think it will, lots of people are going to die. I am going to show you how to make sure it's not you."

The summer passed quickly with the new training. Rose was also reading the Evans Sight book, and trying to refine her Sight. It was still too vague to be of much use, but the book suggested that that would not always be the case. Between the martial arts classes and the gymnastics, the twins were beginning to build firm graceful bodies, and the mental exercises their Uncle had them do were shaping their awareness of the world around them.

Memorization was one of the key exercises. Alexander would lay out a number of items on a sheet, and have them look at them for a minute. Later that day, or the next day, He would ask them to write down what had been there and where it was in relation to everything else.

Something their Uncle called 'situational awareness' was also heavily trained. Uncle Alexander would have them walk through an area, and then quiz them on what had been in that area. Reaction drills, tactical drills and a host of other training techniques culled from a long career as a Muggle soldier insured that the twins were very busy over the summer.

This set the pattern for the summer, until the middle of August, when Robert announced that they were taking a week off for a trip. They would be leaving the next day, and he warned them to pack formal robes as well as daily robes. When the twins asked him where they were going, all he said was that patience was a virtue.

Early the next morning, the twins sent off the last of the pranks they had licensed to the Weasleys, and waited impatiently for their parents to be ready to go. The twins had packed the night before, and about 8:00 am, Robert Portkeyed them to the east coast, and then pulled a second Portkey out. A few seconds later, the family appeared in a small wizard village, and Robert smiled. "Welcome to Hogsmeade."

_**OoOoOoO Emma, Hangeld and Tiffany, The Burrow, Summer 2016. OoOoOoO**_

The three friends had a glorious summer, filled with all the things that make summer worthwhile. They enjoyed it, knowing that it was the last long summer they would have before starting Hogwarts.

Quidditch was played and Garden Gnomes were tossed. There was swimming and races, ice cream in the evenings and all the little things that children do without even noticing them. They were joined occasionally by the children of the other members of the Weasley family, as well as friends of Harry's from the war. Neville's two children came by fairly often, as the Longbottom estate was less than five miles away.

Hangeld spent almost the entire summer at the Burrow every year as his father worked with the Ministry and the Giants, refining and reforming the Human Giant treaties. Since the Border was a dangerous place, Hangeld stayed with Tiffany or Emma during the summer, going back to his home when Hagrid came back from the borders for the school year.

All in all, this was one of their finest summers, and not even the increased number of adult conferences and occasional worried looks affected their summer.

Until one night in the last week of August.

Tiffany, Emma and Hangeld were outside enjoying a summer evening and trying to catch fireflies with Daniel Creevy, who they had known for years, and a new friend. Melissa Xavier was a slim girl, taller than normal and with a serious demeanor. She had black hair and dark brown nearly black eyes that watched everything around her with quiet reserve.

They paused their games when Harry Potter called them. The group trouped up to the back door of the Burrow with laughter and plans for later, things that died quickly as they saw Harry's face. He was not smiling, a rare thing for Harry in the last decade.

"Come inside, kids. We want to show you something."

Harry led the five children into the living room and the five of them found seats. Harry Potter sat down next to Ginny Potter and the kids looked around, sensing that something important was about to happen. Besides the Potters, every one of their parents was sitting in the living room and they looked very serious. Emma's folks, Ron and Hermione, sat next to Victoria and Mitchell Xavier while Hagrid stood in the corner. Colin and Susan Creevey were sitting on the hearth of the fireplace with Susan leaning happily on her husband.

Harry sighed. "I'm not sure how to say this, so I'm going to be straight forward. "We have some information that you need to hear."

Harry took out a scroll and read the prophecy to the kids. He looked at them when he was finished. "There is a very good chance that some or all of you will be involved in this when you get to Hogwarts."

Emma, Hangeld and Tiffany looked at each other first. They had heard all the stories of the problems that Harry's prophecy had caused him during the second half of the Voldemort War and this could be a bad thing.

Daniel Creevy was frowning. "Why are there so many of us? Usually, prophecies have just two people." He thought about it some more. "And who are the others? You said there would be eight, and there are only five of us."

Hermione Granger-Weasley, Emma's mother, sighed. "We don't know why there are eight people, although there are a couple of theories. The first is that the Patient Child is building an organization, like Voldemort's Death Eaters, but more dangerous." She hesitated, and then continued. "Another theory is that this enemy has so much power, or will have so much power, that it will take eight normal people to contain him."

Daniel nodded. "OK, but who are the other three people?"

The adults looked at each other, and Daniel looked at them. "You do know who they are, right?"

Harry took a deep breath. "Yes. Two of them are Americans, distant relations of my mother. Their names are James and Rose Evans."

Tiffany looked at her father. She knew him the best of all the children and she knew he was avoiding something. "Who is the last one?"

Ginny and the Weasleys in the room frowned and Harry sighed. "Lisa Malfoy."

Lucius and Draco Malfoy had been Death Eaters during the Voldemort War, and they had been one of the reasons it had dragged on as long as it had. During the second phase of the Voldemort War (Which some people called the Potter phase, much to Harry's embarrassment,) Lucius and Draco Malfoy had given Voldemort the information that allowed him to enter the Ministry.

Percy Weasley had died there, fighting a rear guard action while the Ministry evacuated. Bill Weasley had died breaking the wards the Death Eaters had set around the building when the Ministry counterattacked. The actions of Lucius and Draco had cost the light side more than twenty wizards and witches, and only a base act of betrayal had kept Draco out of Azkaban.

Late in the War, when everyone knew how it would end, if not when, Draco had turned his father in as a Death Eater. He had made a deal with the Ministry. In return for the location of Voldemort's hideout and a diagram of the buildings and caves there, Draco served just three years in Azkaban, with no other penalties. Harry had been talked into letting him be by the Ministry and Harry had agreed not to kill him on sight, which was all Draco had wanted.

No other official penalties, anyway. Ginny Potter had seen him in the streets of Diagon Alley soon after he'd been released from Azkaban, and beaten him severely with a conjured whip. It had taken the healers at St. Mungo's two days to repair the damage she'd done, and he would forever bear some of the scars. Since Ginny had promised to do the same thing every time she saw him, Draco rarely came out in public these days.

Rumour had it that Draco had a couple of physical problems these days as well. It was said that he had a constant case of nausea and diarrhea, one that had not gone away in twelve years, despite everything he tried. Most people suspected the twins of doing whatever had happened to Draco, but they denied it. Ginny had long ago figured out why Harry and Hermione just smiled and changed the subject when Draco came up, but not many others had.

Today, the Malfoy name was one of the most hated names in the Wizarding world. People used it as an insult, meaning a base vile and cowardly traitor. In the homes of those that had actually fought against the Death Eaters, such as the Longbottoms, Creeveys, Potters and Weasleys, Draco was a bitter reminder that some of the scum had not been removed during the clean up after the war. Only the Riddle name was held to more contempt.

The kids looked at each other. "We're supposed to trust a Malfoy?" Emma asked incredulously.

Harry frowned. "Sirius Black came from a Dark family," he reminded her, "and he is not a bad man, is he?"

Emma frowned at Harry, touching her hair. "That depends on what he's done to your hair recently."

Harry hid his smile. Since the end of the War, Sirius had been working with the twins, making and perfecting more and more pranks and jokes. A couple of weeks ago he had tested a new one on Emma, without her permission or even her knowledge. She had gone to bed as normal, with her hair the red of every Weasley. Her was remarkable in a gathering of Weasleys only because she also had the bushy frizz of her mother. Emma's hair stuck out like a banner.

Until Sirius tested his potion on her at dinner. Emma had woken up in the morning and walked into the bathroom. A few seconds later everyone in the house was awake as she shrieked. As people poured out of the rooms, wands out and searching for danger, Emma had come out of the bathroom.

Her hair had been changed into a Medusa's locks, and dozens of small green snakes writhed where her hair had been.

Sirius had been Flooed, but he'd spent the night with Elizabeth Greengrass somewhere and it had taken nearly five hours to track him down and have Emma's hair fixed. Emma was still trying to find a way to pay him back, but Sirius had been pranking people for more than thirty years and her attempts at revenge had failed so far.

While Harry thought about what Emma had said, everyone else was thinking about the oldest Malfoy child. Ron was frowning. "Do we know which of the eight she is?"

Harry shook his head. "We only know a couple of them. Miss Xavier is the Healer, Miss Evans appears to be the Seer, Hangeld is the Half Human, but the rest are up for grabs."

Hermione was examining the prophecy again. "Two born a world apart would assume the Evans boy and one of ours. Tiffany is the only one over here related to them, correct?" People nodded. "Emma is the Fireheart I would guess, given her willingness to try anything." Hermione Granger-Weasley smiled at Emma as she blushed. Emma tendencies to poke her nose into anything that caught her attention was fast becoming a family legend, much like Fred and George's pranks.

"That only leaves two more, the Artist and the Mental Wizard," Hermione continued. "but without knowing anything about Malfoy, we can't be certain."

"Actually, we're not certain about the Two. Robert Evans has a different interpretation of the prophecy that does have some merit." He went through the reasoning Robert had given Mary, about medieval England and modern America being worlds apart and how there were a couple of families involved in this that had Seers in the family history.

The adults pondered that while the children sat huddled together, discussing the oldest Malfoy child. Emma was the one that looked at Harry. "Who is the oldest Malfoy, anyway? The only one I've ever seen is Draco jr, and he seems a bit young for this."

Harry rolled his eyes. "You're all a bit young for this. The oldest Malfoy child is a girl, Lisa Malfoy. She'll be starting Hogwarts with you this year."

Daniel frowned. "How are we going to meet the Americans? There has never been an American in Hogwarts."

Mitchell Xavier snickered. "Not until now, no. Robert Evans is a determined man though, and one with a great many contacts and money. As I understand it, the official story will be that he paid their tution up front, in gold for all seven years, with no refunds of any part of it, even if they don't finish school."

Hermione looked up. "You said the official story. Now tell us the rest of the story."

Mitchell smirked. "Hogwarts has a new fund this year, under the control of the Headmaster, and someone donated two million Galleons to it. No name was attached to the donation. Along with that, Cumulus Inc. will be supplying all of Hogwarts' needs at cost while they are in school." He grinned at the expressions of the adults. "Is anyone really surprised to know that Mr. Evans controls that company?"

Harry sighed. "Robert is a very pragmatic man. I'm still not certain if he would have been a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin if he'd gone to Hogwarts."

Hermione looked at Harry. "Pragmatic is one way to put it. I would say he's rather driven, and that rules don't mean that much to him." Hermione was still the one that worried about the rules and respected authority, a fact that had not changed since the Trio's first year. Harry and Ron grinned at her, and she huffed at them while the rest of the adults watched the byplay with smiles.

The kids had been discussing Lisa Malfoy and had come to an agreement. They knew what her family was like and they would watch her. If it looked like she was getting ideas, they'd figure out what to do then.

The meeting broke up a bit later and the children went on with their summer. The prophecy, being about events that were five or six years away, didn't have much impact on them now, and they could push it out of their minds fairly easily. Emma didn't worry about it at all. There were dozens of Weasleys after all, and she couldn't conceive of anything they couldn't handle together.

Tiffany was far more worried about something else. Ginny Potter was replacing Madame Pomfrey as the school nurse next year, and would be working with her this year, to learn the routines of the Infirmary. Worse still, Professor Hooch was retiring this year, and her father was going to be the Flying Instructor, as well as helping Alan Moody, son of Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, teach the NEWT level DADA classes.

That meant that both of her parents would be at Hogwarts and that would not be good for a few of the things she had wanted to do. Fred and George had remade the Marauder's Map with Sirius' help after it was destroyed during the Battle of Hogwarts, and they had gifted it to Tiffany. Along with it, she had Harry's first Invisibility Cloak, which he had told her to keep a secret. The twins and Sirius had also been showing her a few things that were not on the market yet, and wanted her to try them out at school. No, Tiffany was not happy about her parents being at school. Harry and Ginny had spent far too much time sneaking around the school and breaking the very same rules she was going to be breaking not to be able to figure out what she was doing.

Hangeld thought about it more than the others, but his only concern was that his friends not get hurt. Hangeld knew he was bigger and stronger than any of his friends,with some abilities and defences they didn't have and that meant he could shield them.

Melissa had an advantage over the others. She was the direct descendent of Debra Xavier, the Witch that had treated Elric Evans eight hundred years ago, and their family had kept their copy of the prophecy. They had seen the signs of the prophecy time coming as soon as Robert had and Melissa had been told that it was coming as soon as Professor Dumbledore had contacted them. That was why the Xaviers had started coming to the Burrow in the first place.

Melissa's concerns were different. She knew what she would be doing and her worries were about what kind of injuries they would receive, and how she would deal with them. She threw herself into her studies with the fervor of an obsession.

Daniel Creevey wanted to do more than his father had in the Voldemort War. Colin had fought, but most of his fame from the war came as the Quibbler's photographer and Daniel was young enough to think true glory came from fighting and being a great fighter.

By the time the Hogwarts letters were sent out, only one of the ones thought to be involved in the prophecy had no idea what was going on. No one had yet figured out how to talk to Lisa Malfoy,who rarely left the Malfoy estate. No one wanted to tell Draco Malfoy what was going on, but without doing that, they could only talk to Lisa when she was off the estate, and that hadn't happened this summer.

_**OoOoOoO Adam Brooks, London, 01AUG1991. OoOoOoO**_

Adam looked at the sketches he'd drawn after the visit to Diagon Alley. The short man that had visited the day after he received a very strange letter had been shocking enough to the Brooks family, but the trip to the Wizard world had settled most of their doubts. He looked over at the stack of robes and books that waited for this new school and only the warning Professor Flitwick had given him kept him from taking the wand out and trying to make something happen.

He looked again at the pictures of Wizards in robes and the stranger things he'd seen in the Alley. His eyes flickered to some of his favorite drawings and paintings. The Buckingham Guards, with the medieval castle behind them, and a dozen more, all with elements of fantasy in them.

Apparently life was more fantastic than even his imagination had known.

_**OoOoOoO The Guardians, Somewhere. OoOoOoO**_

"_Who is this person that comes?"_

"_I don't know. I cannot touch her." The female presence was silent for an instant that in this place could have been an hour or a week. "Here, Greeneyes. Look here, in the dim past."_

"_That's impossible. She's a myth."_

"_Look forward, and see where she crosses our charges."_

"_She might hurt them. Should we do something to prevent this?"_

"_What can we do? She is not of our Prophecy. We cannot touch her, especially with that mark on her."_

_The male presence seemed to frown as he observed the hole in the world that was coming closer to the Eight of their prophecy. "A dream, or other warning to the Seer?"_

"_And what if that is the thing that makes her try to hurt them, being greeted with mistrust and dislike?" She soothed the man she had been bound to for more than Eight hundred years. "We must let them do some things on their own, Greeneyes. Like parents, we learn to let go and let them live."_

_The man sighed. ""Most parents don't have to wait this long to let go," he groused in a dry tone._

_The other light had a sense of laughter in her tone. "I seem to recall that you thought our children grew up too fast the first time."_

_The male presence responded in kind. "Couldn't we find a middle ground between seventeen years and eight hundred?"_

_**OoOoOoO Raven, Somewhere, 12AUG2007. OoOoOoO**_

_Well, the old Prophecy story will start to change in the next chapter, which will be the chapter the Sorting is in, and the first meeting of Lisa. Those of you that have read Prophecy will understand that nothing has really changed yet, I've just expanded on some things that I left out before._

_This goes off to the Betas today, (All Hail the Mighty Betas!) without which, this would be an poorer story, filled with errors and far too many commas._

_Right after I send this off, I'm starting on SoG11._

_30AUG07_

_I'm sorry this took so long, but between a lengthy Beta internet problem and my trip to the mountains... it just did. SoG11 is at roughly 10,000 words and should be going to the Betas this weekend._

_Raven_


End file.
